Airbus revealed the November O&D spreadsheet today and there is an undisclosed customer for 100 A320 family aircraft in it.
Now there are - competing - two airlines which talked about a 100 aircraft strong A320 order or were rumoured to place an order soon: Airasia and Lionair.
So who is the "mystery" customer?
Airasia needs more aircraft soon - their growth strategy especially in Indonesia, where they want to give Lionair a hard fight, took a setback with the failed takeover of Batavia. So to keep or become competitive in Indonesia, they need more aircraft soon. Not just neo's but also ceo's.
Lionair on the other hand has an orderbook large enough to wait for the neo...
Let's take a look at the neo orders at the end of October: they stood at 1469.
We know that Transasia ordered another 6 and Interjet 40 neo's. This is 1515.
In a presentation at the EADS investors day last week John Leahy mentioned to have 1579 orders for the neo - a difference of 64 aircraft that can only be a part of the 100 aircraft strong order from the undisclosed customer.
So I have a very strong feeling that Airasia ordered another 64 A320neo and 36 A320ceo.
And now I wait eagerly for a reaction (read: counterorder) from Lionair...;-)