Boeing is no longer the exclusive supplier of the Middle Eastern low-cost carrier Flydubai, Bloomberg reports. The airline decided to change its procurement strategy for the first time and placed an order for 150 narrow-body A321neo from Boeing's competitor, Europe's Airbus. The deal is in the form of a memorandum of understanding and was announced on Tuesday at the Dubai Airshow.
For Airbus, this is the first major contract at the show, which was dominated the day before by Boeing, which received an order for 65 wide-body 777Xs from Emirates' sister company Flydubai. Flydubai's decision is also of strategic importance: switching from one manufacturer to another in the narrowbody market is extremely rare, as airlines usually stick to a single fleet to reduce complexity and costs, emphasizes Bloomberg.
Flydubai in recent years has openly expressed dissatisfaction with Boeing's delivery delays, which has limited its expansion plans amid Dubai's aggressive promotion of tourism and routes in the region. Against this backdrop, Airbus has strengthened its position in the Gulf: in addition to the Flydubai contract, the company has received an additional order from Etihad Airways for A330neo and A350-1000 aircraft. At the same time, the long-awaited deal with Emirates for the A350-1000 is still in doubt - the airline's CEO Tim Clark said he was dissatisfied with the performance of the model's engines.
In preliminary trading on November 18 in New York, Boeing shares sagged by almost 1% to $190.3. Since the beginning of 2025, the market value of the company has added 8%. For comparison, the main U.S. stock index S&P 500 for the same period rose by more than 13%.
Airbus quotes in Paris also fell, down 0.6 percent, but they are up a third since the beginning of the year.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
