Just a quick note as I am just coming back from a small vacation and saw the news that LEAP-X reportedly got their first two customers - ILFC for the remaining 40 of their 100 A320NEO order and Virgin America for 30 A320neo. The latter is no real surprise, as it was CFM to loose as the incumbent here. Lessors tend to split their A320 orders anyway, so one could anticipate that, too.
The next very-likely-LEAP-X-powered-A320neo-order should be from AirAsia. As Tony Fernandes wants to convert some of the "Classic"-orders and the current Air Asia order is CFM56-powered, a deal including a conversion of orders is only thinkable with CFM.
Still open are TAM with their MoU for 22 A320neo.
During the Paris Air Show we will probably see orders from Republic and Qatar for the A320neo. I would expect Qatar to choose the GTF, as they are also likely to order the CSeries, which is exclusively powered by the GTF. Republic as one of the existing CSeries customers is also a good candidate for the GTF on the A320neo.
If Tony has received our offer and has acted as has been recommended to him from this end, then very likely Tony will have arranged with Leahy for contractual type swapping flexibilty from A32X Series to H2XQR Series, which in practical terms actually re-opens the engine issue : it would give him the free option to go from eg A321 (3+3) (with classical CFMI engines) to eg H21QR (or H22QR, if relevant ?) (1+3+1) NEO (Leap-X or PurePower, open choice in theory, but the likely combination for Tony is the Leap-X, correct !). Time will tell if Tony did arrange for/wants to avail himself of such contractual flexibility ?
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