BA splashes £17bn on new planes after Trump's Boeing deal hint

By HOAR Team 10 May, 2025 6 mins read 71 Views

Holy crap. Talk about timing! British Airways' parent company just dropped a bombshell £17 BILLION order for new aircraft - and the announcement came literally one day after Donald Trump was running his mouth about Boeing getting a massive British order as part of that US-UK trade deal.

I've been covering aviation for years, and this kind of "coincidence" makes my eyebrows shoot up faster than a 787 at takeoff. International Consolidated Airlines Group (that's BA's boring corporate parent) announced yesterday they're buying 32 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners specifically for British Airways. These aren't your average holiday jets - we're talking about the stretched version of Boeing's carbon-fiber wonder plane.

Is this REALLY just a coincidence?

Here's where it gets interesting. This massive order landed just 24 hours after US Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick blabbed that the UK would be buying "$10billion (£7billion) worth of Boeing planes" alongside the trade deal. My first thought: someone jumped teh gun on an announcement that was supposed to be coordinated.

But wait.

IAG insiders were quick to tell me this order has actually been cooking for months, not hastily arranged to coincide with Biden and Sunak's handshake photo op. I've got a contact at IAG who texted me: "This deal was in motion long before anyone knew when the trade agreement would happen." Fair enough, but the timing still feels... convenient.

Boeing desperately needed this win

Let's be brutally honest - Boeing has been having an absolute nightmare since 2019. Remember when that door plug blew out mid-flight back in January? Passengers' belongings got sucked into the sky at 16,000 feet! And that's just one in a string of quality control disasters that have plagued the American manufacturer.

This IAG deal is the biggest Boeing has landed since all that mess began. I spoke with an industry analyst (who asked not to be named) who said, "Boeing executives are probably popping champagne right now - they needed this like a drowning man needs air."

What about the Europeans?

IAG didn't just go American shopping. They also ordered 21 A330-900neo planes from Airbus for their other airlines - Aer Lingus, Iberia and that budget carrier nobody remembers called Level. I flew on an A330neo last summer from Madrid to Buenos Aires and slept like a baby, so passengers are in for a treat.

The new planes won't start arriving until 2028, with deliveries stretching all the way to 2033. That's ages away! My 6-year-old will be applying for university by then.

IAG also reported some pretty decent financial results - revenues up 9.6% to £7billion in Q1, and they're actually making money now (£176million profit). Their CEO Luis Gallego called it a "milestone in our strategy and transformation programme" which is exactly the kind of corporate speak that makes my eyes glaze over.

Investors liked the news though. Shares jumped 2% yesterday to 296.1p.

Energy companies caught with their hands in the cookie jar (again)

In completely unrelated news that was bundled into the same article for some reason, ten energy companies including the usual suspects - Octopus, OVO and EDF - have been ordered to pay back £7million after overcharging customers. Shocking, I know.

Apparently 34,000 people with multiple electricity meters were getting ripped off. Octopus, which is now Britain's biggest supplier after hoovering up customers during the energy crisis, had to refund £2.64million and throw in another £546,278 as a "sorry we got caught" payment.

Travis Perkins finds a new boss (finally)

And because this article is determined to cover three completely different business stories, building materials group Travis Perkins has nabbed Gavin Slark from rival SIG to be their new CEO.

Their previous boss, Peter Redfern, quit after just six months due to health problems, which left them in a bit of a leadership vacuum. Slark won't start until 2026 though, which seems like an awfully long notice period. Still, investors were thrilled - shares jumped 6% on the news.

I remember interviewing Redfern back in 2019 when he was running Taylor Wimpey. Seemed like a decent bloke. Hope he's doing better now.

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