
Egyptair's Capt. Ahmed Adel and Airbus' Benoît de Saint-Exupéry announce the firm order at the Paris Air Show.
LE BOURGET—EgyptAir has exercised its outstanding six options for Airbus A350-900s here at the Paris Air Show.
The carrier will begin receiving the first of 10 A350-900s, ordered in 2023, in December this year and has now decided to upgrade the options from that deal into firm orders to ensure it has a strong delivery stream of widebodies into the early 2030s.
“With everything that's happening with the supply chain and the demand that's very high on all types of aircraft, widebodies and narrowbodies, we decided to exercise the options to be on track with our fleet renovation,” EgyptAir Chairman and CEO Capt. Ahmed Adel told Aviation Week on June 18.
EgyptAir will take a further six of the originally ordered A350-900s in 2026 with the final three arriving by 2030, Adel said.
The six additional A350s now firmed will be delivered between 2030 and 2033, he added.
The order for the A350-900 was synchronized with a deal that saw EgyptAir’s fleet of 12 A220s sold to lessor Azzora.
“It was a strategic decision from the company to bundle the deal with the A350,” Adel said. “It was also our aim to have more units and higher capacity. It was a deal that suited all parties and requirements.”