"Let's wait and see, because obviously there is a huge disconnect between what the manufacturers say they're going to produce and what the airlines decide to buy," Walsh, previously head of British Airways owner IAG, told Reuters.
The order matches a purchase of 20 A220-300 from an undisclosed buyer, reported by Airbus in a monthly report last week. Airbus and Breeze both declined comment.
"There is a ton of pent-up demand on the leisure side," he told last week's World Aviation Festival.
But the company’s net orders - which are adjusted for cancellations - remained in negative territory for the first quarter, with a total of minus 61 net orders dominated by a Norwegian cancellation unveiled in the previous month.
The agreement, first reported by La Tribune, paves the way for political talks to resume among the project's three government backers, France, Germany and Spain, a source close to the matter told Reuters.
"The governments have received an offer from the companies to build the demonstrator for a new combat plane in the framework of FCAS," the French armed forces ministry said, adding that negotiations were continuing on the overall project.
"Here we would actually recommend increasing the number of tasks to be performed if you have a low utilisation," she said. "This is always an engineering driven and safety driven analysis."
The airline took an impairment charge of 4.8 billion crowns ($93.51 million) in the fourth quarter relating to the termination of aircraft purchase contracts with Airbus and Boeing.
"2020 was one of the most challenging years in aviation history. For Spirit, the 737 MAX grounding and the COVID-19 pandemic created a dual-crisis," Spirit Chief Executive Officer Tom Gentile said.
Spirit's total deliveries of shipsets, or complete sets of parts, fell 48.9% to 231 units in the fourth quarter. Boeing 737 MAX deliveries fell to 19 shipsets from 153 a year ago.
The budget carrier has long mulled an aircraft order to expand and replace its fleet of leased Airbus, but decided against going head with such a deal as recently as 2019.
We have put in place a five-year plan in which the number of our fleet aircraft will increase from 17 to 30 aircraft within five years ending in 2025.