Veteran low cost airline investor Bill Franke has signed a mammoth new plane order with Airbus worth $49.5 billion for hundreds of jets.
The Airbus order is for 430 aircraft – 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos, which will be spread across four airlines which Franke’s firm Indigo Partners owns or has a major stake.
Phoenix base PE firm Indigo Partners owns Denver’s low cost carrier Frontier Airlines and the planes will also go to Chile’s JetsSmart, Volaris of Mexico and fast growing European budget airline Wizz Air.
Signed at the Dubai Airshow, it is the ‘largest single commercial announcement ever,’ the European plane maker said.
The eye watering multi-billion dollar price tag is based on the list price which is never realized in full due to bulk discounts.
By pooling the four airlines’ resources together Indigo Partners will likely have scored a record breaking discount too.
For the time being it is still a non-binding MoU agreement which needs to be finalized before it is becomes a firm order.
The biggest ever aircraft deal in history was signed by Emirates in 2013 at Dubai for 150 Boeing 777X planes and 50 A380s for Airbus for a combined $99 billion based on official list prices at the time.
