Singapore Airlines finalized a purchase agreement yesterday for 20 787-9s for which it signed a letter of intent in June (ATWOnline, June 15). It also has purchase rights on 20 more dash 9s. Value of the firm order is $4.52 billion at list prices. Deliveries will be scheduled between early 2011 and mid-2013 and will be for fleet renewal as well as growth, SIA said. No engine selection has been made. Boeing has received firm orders and commitments for 444 787s with options and price rights on another 325.

Boeing yesterday named Larry Dickenson to lead its Commercial Airplanes sales team as VP-sales reporting to Scott Carson, whom he is replacing after Carson was named to succeed Alan Mulally as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes early last month. Dickenson, 63, has headed the manufacturer's Asia/Pacific sales team for 20 years. No replacement has been named yet. "Larry has been a proven leader in building and maintaining strong relationships with our customers," Carson said.

Key customers were to be notified over the weekend of the full extent of the latest delivery delay for the A380. Two customers told ATWOnline that "we expect to have something to say Tuesday." On Sept. 21, EADS confirmed that the program faced further delays due to complex wiring issues. The board of EADS met in Amsterdam Friday to consider what is reported to be a far-reaching restructure of Airbus with transfer of more A380 assembly work to Toulouse and in the longer term more outsourcing of work beyond Europe.

Ryanair on Friday raised its full-year net profit guidance to approximately €335 million ($426 million) and said it firmed options on 32 737-800s valued at $2.25 billion, bringing its total number of firm orders for 737-800s to 281. Deliveries are scheduled between September 2008 and June 2009. Ryanair said the price it is paying for the jets will give it "the lowest per seat operating cost of any European airline."

The dictionary defines a hybrid as something that has two types of components performing essentially the same function. That pretty well describes Seattle-based Horizon Air, which maintains codesharing/feeder relationships with larger affiliate Alaska Airlines as well as Denver-based Frontier Airlines while operating an extensive network in the Pacific Northwest that does not touch either carrier.