Pegasus Airlines unveils deal for 100 Airbus planes

Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines said Tuesday that it has ordered up to 100 Airbus passenger jets, the biggest commercial plane deal to date by a Turkish airline and the first time that Pegasus has not placed its orders with Airbus' arch US rival Boeing.

Pegagus chairman Ali Sabanci told a press conference in Istanbul that the airline had signed a firm order for 75 planes and taken options on 25 others from the Airbus A320 series, in a deal that would carry a catalogue price of US$12 billion (9.1 billion euros), though large orders are routinely signed at discounts.

The purchase includes Airbus A-320 Neo and bigger A-321 Neo planes, which are the latest, more fuel-efficient versions of the group's best-selling single aisle, short-to-medium-range airliner.

Pegasus is thus set to become the first Turkish airline to operate the A320 neo plane, which is to be equipped with new engines and "sharklet" wing tips that provide substantial fuel savings.

Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy was quoted by a statement as saying that the new aircraft would "cut fuel burn by 15 percent" while offering the proven reliability of a model already being operated widely around the world.

Sabanci added that such savings by the Airbus airliner along with "superior cabin comfort made it without a doubt the best choice for achieving our ambitious future development plans."

The aircraft are to be deployed on flights from Istanbul to other Turkish cities as well as destinations in Europe and the Middle East, a Pegasus statement said.

Pegagus currently operates 42 Boeing planes, and serves 24 destinations in Turkey and 38 others abroad.

The airline also owns 12.02 percent of the voting rights in the Germany low-cost airline Air Berlin, making Pegasus the German airline's second-biggest shareholder.

SOURCE

Maybe Boeing is getting too many B737 orders that pushed Pegasus Airlines to Airbus? Haha, that's just a joke, don't take it seriously. This is the second piece of news about aircraft orders in the hundreds. It's really a crazy amount of planes.