Cathay Pacific has exercised purchase rights for a total 32 Airbus A320neos and A321neos that were part of an order placed with the airframer in 2017. The carrier states in a Hong Kong stock exchange notice that the single-aisles are scheduled for delivered by the end of 2029 and will operated by the mainline unit and/or its HK Express subsidiary. Airbus previously said it had no delivery slots for new A320neo-family orders available before 2029. Cathay has not disclosed a split between A320neos and A321neos under the new order. Fleets data shows Cathay has 12 CFM International Leap-1A-powered A321neos in its fleet, which otherwise comprises Boeing and Airbus widebodies. Three A320ceos and two A321ceos – fitted with International Aero Engines V2500s – are listed in storage, while a further four A321neos are on order for the mainline. HK Express, meanwhile, has seven A320ceos and 11 A321ceos – all V2500-powered – and 10 A320neos with Pratt & Whitney PW1100Gs. Additionally, HK Express has two Leap-1A-powered A320neos in its fleet and another 14 of these twinjets on order. Cathay says the 32 additional single-aisles have a basic aircraft price value of $4.66 billion. The airline adds that it received significant concessions from Airbus, in line with price reductions of previous deals with the European airframe. Sale and leaseback arrangements and/or finance leases will be used to fund the additional aircraft, Cathay notes.

Ryanair sees a potential need to slash ticket prices to stimulate the UK market this winter, as it detects particular weakness in consumer confidence outside London. During a media event in London on 27 September, group chief executive Michael O'Leary said trading outside of the UK remained "strong" and showed no signs of a significant slowdown. However, the UK is "weaker [than other markets] with the exception of London, which continues to be strong". He attributes this to a challenging economic situation in the country with higher interest rates and energy bills than continental Europe. "We may have to stimulate fares here," he says, adding, however, that this "wouldn't be the worst thing in the world". He adds: "Demand for travel is not insatiable… Everything points to a dip in consumer confidence and consumer spending, and eventually that feeds back into [demand for] flights." Companywide sales are trending 4-5% ahead of last year through October, November and December, he notes, with capacity 60%, 30% and 15% booked up for those months, respectively. "We are seeing people booking earlier at slightly higher fares, but we are not sure if that will continue into winter." O'Leary repeated his criticism, originally aired earlier this month, of Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of UK air traffic controller NATS, describing his performance as "useless" and "incompetent". He also takes issue with Rolfe's 2023 pay award, labelling it "reprehensible and offensive". This follows the announcement on 25 September that flights would have to be cancelled at Gatwick this week because, NATS disclosed, 30% of its controllers were sick with Covid. NATS, he argues, has enough staff to operate effectively but is hamstrung by poor management and with many staff working from home. Two days of disruption to flights because of a system outage at NATS in August will cost Ryanair Group around £15 million ($18 million), O'Leary estimates, adding that Ryanair pays the air traffic manager more than £100 million per year for its services. He accuses UK aviation minister Baroness Vere of having "disappeared" amid the latest flight disruption. NATS operates through a public-private partnership and the UK government holds a 48.9% stake. The air traffic manager says it will not be making any further statements in relation to the disruption at Gatwick airport beyond a 25 September media release in which it said that given the levels of sickness NATS had experienced over the last few weeks "we believe it is the responsible thing to do to limit the number of flights this week in order to reduce the risk of daily disruption to passengers using the airport".

China Eastern Airlines has agreed to purchase 100 Comac C919s, marking the largest single order for the type. The aircraft are scheduled for delivery from 2024 to 2031, the carrier states. Five units are scheduled for delivery in 2024, while the numbers will be ramped up to 10 and 15 per year from 2025-2027 and from 2028-2030, respectively. The remaining 20 is scheduled for delivery in 2031. The carrier did not disclose the size of the deal, but noted that Comac has granted “substantive price concessions” resulting in a consideration that is “significantly lower”, says the carrier in a 28 September announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The catalogue price of the 100 aircraft is approximately $9.9 billion. The carrier plans to finance the purchase with its own funds, loans from commercial banks and proceeds from the issuance of bonds and other financing instruments, adding that the purchase will be settled in both US dollars and Chinese yuan. “During the delivery period of the aircraft introduced, a large number of narrowbody passenger aircraft in the inventory of the company will be phased out from the fleet due to their age and lease expiry, etc,” states the carrier. China Eastern has two C919s in service, as part of an order of five it placed in 2021. It received its first delivery in December 2022, and the second in July this year. As of 26 September, the two units in service have had a combined 867 hours of commercial operation over 296 commercial flights, carrying more than 35,000 passengers, according to a WeChat post by Comac. The carrier has 431 aircraft in service and stored in its fleet, comprising 383 Airbus jets, 14 Boeing jets and two Comac units.