What Are NG Models Favourite Airlines?

NG Models' Favourite Airlines

13 June 2023

There's no doubt that NG Models gets the most scrutiny of any brand in 400 scale. Partly, no doubt, because of how they've burst onto the scene since 2018 and risen to become the largest brand in the scale, and partly because they have been so engaging with their customer base. Nonetheless, it is impossible to please everyone and I include myself in that. I've been getting a bit disappointed with some of what I've been seeing so I wanted to test my bias and see what NG has actually been making in terms of the airlines. In this piece I want to use the hard numbers to illustrate which airlines are NG's most commonly made and see if the data can tell us anything else.

NOTE: The numbers used in this list include all models announced up to the start of July 2023 including the 'future' releases that haven't got a timescale yet.

928

Up to mid-2023 NG Models have produced or announced an impressive 928 models under their own brand, or Buchannan Models name, since they started production in 2018 - so less than 6 years. Considering their production volumes appear to be decently sized and not especially smaller than their contemporaries that is an impressive number. When you look at competitors it is a high number and year on year NG has shown strong growth to date. Phoenix have made about 2,581 models over 20 years. JC Wings 1,704 models over 15 years and Gemini Jets 2,659 over about 25 years. You can see that at the rate NG have been expanding it will be probably less than a decade before they catch up with their rivals if they keep it up.

The Top 10

The top 10 airlines illustrate that NG Models are keen to compete, especially in the Western market and by proxy with Gemini Jets. There is heavy coverage of major Gemini affiliated airlines such as British Airways, United, American, Alaska, Delta, Southwest and even Air China and China Southern. In fact, it is surprising how few Far-Eastern airlines feature in the top 10. Of course the outlier is Qatar Airways. Perhaps it was the Football World Cup, but I still can't explain why they feature so much. Someone astutely called them 'NG's Emirates' but we know why Gemini Jets produces so many Emirates models (because they have a business deal with them). Why NG make so many Qatar is beyond me really.

The Top 30

When the list is expanded out to feature the top 30 airlines it features more of the top line airline names you'd expect, plus of course some manufacturer house colours and PLAAF. Airlines with lots of scheme variants, such as Condor and Icelandair, punch above their weight. Saudia arguably ranks abnormally high while major Far-Eastern airlines such as JAL, Singapore, Thai and Korean are absent. Air France and Lufthansa are the only additional major European flag carriers (unless you incldue Aeroflot). Both of Canada's major carriers feature.

Something unsurprising is that none of the top 30 represent airlines that are no longer in business or trading under their current name.

The Rest

A look at the next tranche of airlines, those with 4-7 releases each, brings in another 37 carriers - roughly in line with many you'd expect to see in this next tranche but also including some historic airlines like Northwest, TWA, Pan Am, ATA, Thomas Cook and British Midland. It appears clear that some airlines like Turkish, for example, are clearly going to get more attention in the coming months.

It is within this group that a selection of other Asian (JL, KE, CX, SQ, CI, BR) and European (KLM, SAS, AY) majors appear. Africa is represented by ET and South America arrives with GOL, Avianca, Copa but not Latam.

When it is broken down as a % you can see that the top 10 airlines make up just over a quarter of all NG Models' releases with the top 30 airlines being nearly half. Pleasingly 53% of releases are for airlines outside the top 30 but of that amount only 31% are airlines with less than 4 models apiece (about 291 models in total). So there has definitely been a space for more unusual airlines but it does appear that in recent times they have been rather sidelined in favour of better known carriers (see the summary for why).

Summary

It is clear that there has been quite a lot of diversity in NG's airline releases, however it is also clear that they have firm favourites - most of which are no real surprise due to size and brand recognition. Even so, the figures above don't tell the whole story and you need to take into account several other factors:

In the early years NG had limited aircraft moulds and so there was a much greater variety of airlines made for these original moulds, like the 757, due to this. The diversity of NG's releases is stacked and much higher in 2018/2019 than more recently.

NG can only release models for airliners they have a mould for. In 2023 that means almost all modern aircraft, but every year NG has been adding moulds so it is only recently that has been the case. Due to this some airlines are probably less well represented than they might be.

NG have started releasing multiple very similar releases at or near the same time. So although, for example, they have made 5 JetStar releases 4 are A320s with scheme variants. Northwest is another example - 8 releases but all 757s. Basically, the number of releases per airline isn't necessarily a true reflection of diversity.

NG Models love special schemes and it is now at the point where around half of all releases feature a special colour of some kind.

Overall it is impossible for NG to please everyone, but at least it is evident they are creating models for a wide range of airlines - far wider than the competition (aside from Aeroclassics). They are not constrained by geography and spheres of influence like Gemini, JC Wings and Phoenix are and are now often producing as many models as all of them put together. Even so, there is more analysis required to see how NG's production has changed and so I'm planning on there being a part 2 and 3 to this analysis.

One way of getting a better reflection of what NG Models is doing now is to look at their recent production and compare that to their past. That is what I'll be doing in part 2 of this analysis - looking at NG Models' production in 2023 alone. Stay tuned for that.