MAS to announce aircraft orders at Paris Air Show

Malaysia Airlines will reportedly announce new aircraft orders at the Paris Air Show (The Star, 17-Jun-2011). The carrier will likely exercise its option to purchase up to 20 B737-800s at a cost of USD1.6 billion, at catalogue prices. The announcement will be made on 21-Jun-2011. Whether or not MAS will exercise its option to buy 10 more A330-300s is not clear, however a visit to the Airbus plant in Toulouse has been planned following the Paris Air Show to inspect the first of the six A380 aircraft in the final assembly process. MAS also plans to order 30 aircraft for its LCC unit Firefly but details on the timing of the order have not been specified.