easyJet will make a decision on its fleet strategy by the end of the year, according to its head of fleet and central procurement Chris Essex, Flight Global reports. At its investor day Mr Essex said easyJet is ‘actively evaluating the re-engined Airbus Neo and Boeing 737 Max as well as the Bombardier CSeries’.
The airline launched a fleet evaluation last September, and is studying the ‘relative economics of the competing aircraft types’ across their life cycles. Mr Essex said that an increased choice of suppliers and ‘game-changing fuel savings promised by the new fuel technologies from CFM and Pratt & Whitney’, coupled with ‘the attractiveness of winning an easyJet order’ would lead to ‘a very competitive tender’.
This news should please the airline's founder and major shareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who has been in dispute with the airline's board over its fleet strategy and had called for future plane orders to be by competitive tender by the three aircraft manufacturers mentioned. Mr Essex said the airline intended to complete the process and make a decision during the fourth quarter of 2012, with the first availability of the new aircraft types from around 2017.