Cathay to lease additional A321neos

Bloomberg is reporting that the Cathay Group is close to finalizing a lease-agreement for additional Airbus A321neos. In March 2023, Scramble wrote that the group was looking into adding 50 narrowbody aircraft for its airlines. Ideally, these would be ordered directly with a manufacturer but to secure short-term capacity, a lease-agreement for part of this 50 would also be a possibility.

And now it seems the airline has secured the short-term addition of more A321neos. According to Bloomberg, the deal would be for eighteen aircraft, which are scheduled for delivery between 2025 and 2027. The exact split of aircraft per airline in the group wasn't mentioned.

Currently, the Cathay Group is operating a narrowbody fleet of two A320s, two A321s, and twelve A321neos at Cathay Pacific, and six A320s, ten A320neos, eleven A321s, and one A321neo at HK Express. The airline Group also has nineteen A321neos remaining on order.

Photo by Cathay Group.