Air Europa (UX, Palma de Mallorca) has placed a firm order with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) for fourteen B787-9s, valued at USD3.6 billion at list prices. Though the order was previously attributed to an unidentified customer, Juan José Hidalgo, the president of the airline's parent, Globalia Corporacion, did allude to it in discussions with the Spanish media in November last year.

"The first 787-8 Dreamliners will start to arrive in 2016, this will allow us to grow both the number of flights and destinations we will operate to by around 50%," Hidalgo said.

Air Europa will commence B787 operations in April when it wet-leases a B787-8 from LOT Polish Airlines (LO, Warsaw Chopin) on a one year contract. The aircraft is to be used on a daily Madrid Barajas to Miami International service.

The Spanish leisure operator, which now has a combined total of twenty-two B787-8s and B787-9s on order from the US manufacturer, plans to transition its long-haul fleet to an exclusive all-Boeing operation. Its current fleet of twelve A330-200s and two A330-300s are slated to be retired between 2017 and 2018.