An aircraft “order” announced at the Farnborough Airshow can be a signed purchase commitment, a preliminary agreement or a package that includes aircraft the customer may never buy. The fastest clue is the label beside the number: a firm order signals the strongest present commitment; a letter of intent or memorandum of understanding is usually preliminary; and an option is a right to place an additional order later.
On July 20, the opening day of the 2026 show, Farnborough generated £36.2 billion in announced aircraft deals and 234 firm Airbus and Boeing aircraft orders. The £36.2 billion total also included Airbus helicopter deals, while the 234 figure specifically counted firm Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The two headline numbers therefore covered different sets of transactions.
“Order” is often an umbrella word
Aircraft purchases take years to negotiate, build and deliver. News headlines compress that long process into one word, even though the announcement may sit at one of several points along it.
A letter of intent, or LoI, usually records that a buyer wants to pursue a deal and puts preliminary terms on paper. It is a meaningful signal of interest, but it is not the same thing as a completed purchase agreement.
A memorandum of understanding, or MoU, also records a common plan while the parties work toward a final contract. An MoU may contain more developed terms than an earlier expression of interest, but the labels do not form a dependable legal ranking by themselves. The wording of the actual document determines what, if anything, is binding.
A firm order is the category closest to what most readers imagine when they see “bought.” The buyer and manufacturer have agreed on the aircraft and commercial terms, and the deal generally includes a deposit, cancellation penalties and reserved delivery slots. LoIs, MoUs and firm orders can therefore be viewed as a rough rise in purchase commitment, provided the actual agreement supports that reading.
An option is separate from that sequence. It gives the customer a negotiated right to add aircraft later, often with access to future production slots. Until it is exercised, it is not an aircraft the customer has firmly ordered.
A framework agreement is an umbrella arrangement for a longer relationship. It may set eligible aircraft, a maximum quantity and a process for placing later firm orders. The headline maximum describes how large the relationship could become, not necessarily what the customer has committed to buy immediately.
Why “up to 120” may mean eight firm aircraft today
The phrase up to is the most useful warning on an aircraft-order headline. It usually means the largest possible total has been placed in the headline, with firm aircraft and conditional additions grouped together.
The Helicopter Company offers a clean Farnborough example. A 2024 framework covered up to 120 Airbus helicopters. At the 2026 show, the company placed a firm order for eight H145s under that wider framework. The 120 described the potential scale of the relationship; the eight described the new firm commitment announced that day.
Compare that with SMBC Aviation Capital’s announcement at the same show. Its agreement covered a firm order for 100 A320neo-family aircraft: 65 A321neos and 35 A320neos. Although 100 is smaller than 120, it represented the stronger present commitment in those two announcements.
This does not make options empty publicity. Airlines and leasing companies need flexibility because fleet demand, financing, routes and replacement schedules can change over a decade. An option lets the customer prepare for growth without making every possible aircraft firm on day one. The mistake is counting the option as though it has already been exercised.
A firm order is still not a delivered aircraft
Even a firm order should not be pictured as a finished jet changing hands beside the Farnborough runway. It enters a manufacturing pipeline that may stretch for years. SMBC’s newly ordered aircraft, for example, are intended to support a delivery pipeline into the mid-2030s.
Delivery comes later, after production, configuration, inspection and acceptance. That is why Airbus publishes orders and deliveries as separate figures and describes its monthly order records as firm transactions. The order affects the manufacturer’s backlog; delivery is the later event that puts the aircraft into the customer’s hands.
The same separation helps with headline values. A day-one total for “deals” is not a pile of cash received that afternoon. It may combine aircraft categories, delivery years and announcement types. Readers need the deal’s label and firm quantity before the top-line value becomes meaningful.
How to read the next airshow headline
Five questions usually reveal what an announcement means:
- Does it say firm order, LoI, MoU, framework or options?
- If the headline says up to, how many aircraft are firm today?
- Are options or other possible later additions included in the total?
- When are deliveries supposed to begin, and how many years do they cover?
- Does the manufacturer later include the aircraft in its firm monthly order book?
Farnborough gives aviation companies a stage large enough to make every number sound final. It does not make every announcement equally firm. Once the headline total is split into preliminary commitments, firm aircraft and optional additions, the real scale of the deal becomes much easier to see.
