Edition 57
The Farnborough Airshow saw fewer orders than anticipated. One of the reasons could be lack of capacity with Airbus to deliver early and lack of commitment from Boeing on delivery slots. Coinciding with the airshow Flydubai said that it won’t be receiving any new aircraft from Boeing in 2024, thanks to the issues with Boeing.
As the deals were announced, the one which made the maximum eye rolls was a small Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 3 A320neo and 2 A321XLR aircraft by DrukAir. Aviation in Bhutan has come a long way from what used to be widely circulated as “Only seven pilots are trained to land at Paro”. There are more planes, more airlines and from BAe 146 – the country has moved to not just A319s but also the A320. The 321XLR though is a different dimension altogether.
The answer on why 321 lies in a new city being developed in Bhutan towards the south and bordering India. Gelephu Mindfulness City or GMC is where the future economic expansion of Bhutan is planned. With an airport which has fewer challenges than Paro, over the next five to seven years the airline and airport can gear up for the XLR operations. The real challenge will be taking off with significant loads and fuel to really make the most of the XLRs or will it just mean refuelling at Kolkata? With its friendly relations and pact, India has gone out of its way to open up sensitive and forward air bases like Bagdogra to international operations for Bhutanese carriers. It works out well, a short hop to Indian airport, refuelling and onwards to South East Asia with full rights to carry passengers to and from India. The return could well be non-stop but either ways helps Kolkata?
Why Kolkata and not Guwahati or Bagdogra? While Kolkata itself is my measured guess and speculation, it has a large size of its own traffic compared to the other two. Bhutan is in the middle of a geopolitical pull – between India and China. The first of the XLRs will be in the fleet beyond 2030, before which the MoU has to be converted to firm orders. The XLRs, too, will join the geopolitics. Unlike other cases, this one has a long time to get an answer.
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