Top of the list is Indian LCC IndiGo, which has just under 500 aircraft on order, primarily A320 family aircraft.
More than half (55%) of IndiGo's in service fleet is made up of all-economy A320ceos with 180 seats and A320neos with 186 seats. However, the carrier's future fleet will be more concentrated on the 232 seat A321neo, which accounts for 63% of IndiGo's narrowbody aircraft on order.
Two other Indian airlines made the list - SpiceJet in seventh and Jet Airways in eighth.
SpiceJet has 155 aircraft on order, all of them for Boeing 737 MAX variants. This includes 102 737 MAX 8s and 40 737 MAX 10s. Variants for the remaining orders have yet to be announced.
Jet Airways has 135 aircraft on order - 125 737 MAXs and 10 787-9s - although the fate of these orders is not fully clear.
The Jalan-Kalrock Consortium was granted court approval to take ownership of Jet Airways in mid Jan-2023. It intends for Jet Airways to resume operations in the near future. For the moment, these orders remain on Boeing's books as 'unfilled', although the new owners have not revealed how they intend to proceed with them.
Top 10 Asia Pacific airlines by fleet orders (week commencing 27-Mar-2023)
|
Rank |
Airline |
Widebody |
Narrowbody |
Turboprop & regional jet |
Total |
|
1 |
IndiGo |
0 |
487 |
12 |
499 |
|
2 |
Lion Air |
0 |
407 |
19 |
426 |
|
3 |
AirAsia |
0 |
362 |
0 |
362 |
|
4 |
VietJet Air |
0 |
314 |
0 |
314 |
|
5 |
China Southern Airlines |
9 |
165 |
20 |
194 |
|
6 |
China Eastern Airlines |
8 |
180 |
0 |
188 |
|
7 |
SpiceJet |
0 |
155 |
0 |
155 |
|
8 |
Jet Airways |
10 |
125 |
0 |
135 |
|
9 |
Air China |
8 |
96 |
21 |
125 |
|
10 |
Ruili Airlines |
6 |
94 |
0 |
100 |
Indonesia's Lion Air has 407 narrowbodies on order. These are split between the Boeing 737 MAX (228 orders) and the A320neo (178 orders).
Lion Air's order book is also split between all-economy and dual-class configurations. It has 99 dual class A320neos and another 64 are dual class A321neos on order. The remaining 244 narrowbody orders are for high-density configurations, including 50 of the 737 MAX 10 with 230 seats.
AirAsia has 362 orders for delivery out to 2035, all of them for high-density 232 seat A321neo aircraft.
The group has migrated several earlier orders for away from the smaller A320neo in the last few years, in order to take advantage of the A321's capacity and cost advantages.
Hanoi-based low cost operated VietJet Air has 314 narrowbodies on order, with 114 from Airbus and another 200 (all 737 MAXs). The carrier is currently an all Airbus operator, but intends to take delivery of Boeing aircraft from 2024 onwards.
The first full service carrier on the list is China Southern Airlines in fifth place, with 194 aircraft on order. The carrier's backlog is comprised of a wide mix of widebodies, narrowbodies and regional jets from different OEMs: 101 aircraft from Airbus, 68 from Boeing and 24 from domestic OEM COMAC.
Air China (in ninth place, with a backlog of 125 aircraft) has a similarly broad mix of types from different OEMs on order.
China Eastern Airlines has 188 aircraft on order (137 from Airbus and 51 from Boeing), but it lacks to smaller regional types at its domestic peers.
The recently re-branded Sunan Ruili Airlines' has an order book that is all Boeing aircraft. The rapidly expanding carrier is seeking to more than double its operating fleet by 2025 under new owners Wuxi Transportation Group.
Not appearing on the list, but soon to join its ranks is another Indian carrier - Air India.
In Feb-2023, the Indian national carrier announced commitments with Airbus and Boeing for 490 aircraft, with options for a further 70. The deals include planned orders for 250 aircraft from Airbus (140 A320neos, 70 A321neos, 34 A350-1000s and six A350-900s) and 220 from Boeing (190 737 MAXs, 20 787s and 10 777Xs).
Once these are finalised, Air India will become the region's second largest carrier in terms of unfilled orders.