Airbus Updates No.301

CIT selects 50 A320neo aircraft

 

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE CIT), a leading global commercial finance company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 50 A320neo Family aircraft. The deal was signed today at the 49th Le Bourget airshow by C. Jeffrey Knittel, President of Transportation Finance at CIT and John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers.

This order brings the total number of aircraft in the Airbus order book for CIT to 241 aircraft, comprising 195 A320 Family aircraft (including the 50 A320neo aircraft), 39 A330s, seven A350 XWBs. Of these 141 have been delivered so far.

“This order will enable CIT Aerospace to maintain one of the youngest and most technologically advanced fleets in the industry and will help us meet our customers’ demand for state-of-the-art, fuel efficient aircraft,” said C. Jeffrey Knittel, President of Transportation Finance at CIT.

“We are delighted that a long standing Airbus customer and leading leasing company such as CIT has placed its first order for the industry’s new benchmark in fuel efficient, single-aisle aircraft, the A320neo,” said John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers. ”This order yet again underlines the continued anticipated high demand for A320neo on the leasing market in particular thanks to their outstandingly high levels of reliability and unbeatable economics of the A320 Family.” 

Over 7,000 A320 Family aircraft have already been ordered and more than 4,700 delivered to more than 330 customers and operators worldwide reaffirming its position as the world’s best-selling single-aisle aircraft family. The A320neo has over 95 percent airframe commonality making it an easy fit into existing fleets while offering up to 500 nautical miles (950 kilometres) more range or two tonnes more payload at a given range.

The A320neo is a new engine option for the A320 Family entering into service from 2015 and incorporates latest generation engines and large "Sharklet" wing tip devices, which together will deliver 15 percent in fuel savings. This reduction in fuel burn is equivalent to 1.4m litres of fuel – the consumption of 1,000 mid size cars.  This saves 3,600 tonnes of C02 per aircraft per year, the amount of C02 absorbed by 240,000 mature trees. The A320neo NOx emissions are 50% below CAEP/6 and this aircraft also has considerably smaller noise footprint.