The second day of the Dubai Airshow 2019 was marked by smashing deals from Emirates and Air Arabia.

While Dubai's Emirates placed an order for 50 Airbus 350-900 XWB aircraft worth $16 billion (58.7 billion UAE dirhams), Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia announced a firm order for 120 Airbus A320neo-family jets in a deal worth around $14 billion.

The delivery of the first Emirates A350 XWB, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, is expected in May 2023, and will continue until 2028, Emirates said in a statement.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates Chairman and Chief Executive signed the agreement with Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury.

Sheikh Ahmed said: "We are pleased to sign a firm order for 50 A350 XWBs, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. This follows a thorough review of various aircraft options and of our own fleet plans. It is Emirates' long-standing strategy to invest in modern and efficient aircraft, and we are confident in the performance of the A350 XWB."

According to the statement, the A350 will enable Emirates to serve a range of new markets including long-haul flights of up to 15 hours of flying time from Dubai. Emirates intends to equip its A350s with its latest products and offer different cabin configurations, including Premium Economy.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said on Monday the airline will face a tough second half of the company's financial year, according to a Reuters report.

"There are headwinds, all the time changing... This year has been tough. It will be tough," Reuters quoted Sheikh Ahmed as saying.

Regarding Air Arabia's order which is seen as one of the region's largest single-aisle orders with Airbus, Adel Al Ali, Group CEO of Air Arabia, said: "This new milestone underpins not only our solid financial fundamentals but also the strength of our multi-hub growth strategy that we have adopted over the years while remaining focused on efficiency, performance and passenger experience."

He added: "The addition of the A320neo, A321neo and A321XLR complements our existing fleet and allows us to expand our service to farther and newer destinations while remaining loyal to our low-cost business model. We look forward to working with Airbus and receiving the first delivery."

Air Arabia is an all Airbus operator with a total fleet of 54 A320 family aircraft including the A321LR.

The opening day of the 2019 Dubai Airshow marked only one deal: The sale of two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners to Biman Bangladesh Airlines. The jets bought on Sunday are valued at $585 million at list prices, according to Boeing.

However, the deals announced, so far, are relatively insignificant compared to the ones at the previous editions of the airshow.

On the first day of the previous Dubai Airshow in 2017, Boeing sealed a sale of 40 787-10 jets to Emirates at a value of $15.1 billion. Day one of the 2013 show had closed with a whopping $192 billion in orders, which is an all-time record.

(Writing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@refinitiv.com, editing by Anoop Menon)

© ZAWYA 2019