Plane-leasing giant AerCap to buy more Dreamliners  

A China Southern Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane lands over houses near Heathrow Airport. File picture

AerCap, one of the plane-leasing giants with major offices in Ireland, says it will buy five additional 787 Dreamliners. 

"We believe in this aircraft," said AerCap chief commercial officer Peter Anderson at a press event at the Farnborough Airshow in England. 

"We see an opportunity to build on a bet that we placed on the 787 a while ago... We think the 787 is an aircraft of the future," he said. 

Separately, aircraft lessor Aviation Capital Group, or ACG, said it had ordered 12 additional 737 Max 8 jets. ACG's Mahoko Hara said the move "will help position ACG's order book for a recovery in air traffic coming out of the pandemic".

Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Stan Deal said this week the US plane-maker was "very close" to restarting 787 deliveries, which have been halted since May 2021 as Boeing works through inspections and production issues.

Boeing only briefly resumed 787 deliveries in March 2021 after halting them in late 2020.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday the agency "will sign off on each delivery only after Boeing demonstrates the aircraft meets FAA safety standards".

Mr Anderson said AerCap had not been holding off on ordering more planes until Boeing neared a resumption of deliveries, but added that "it certainly helped".

AerCap, the world's largest 787 customer, now has 125 787 Dreamliners in its portfolio or on order. 

• Reuters