Aerion Supersonic has secured its first commitment for its new AS2 aircraft from China under a marketing and sales agreement with Avion Pacific that covers multiple aircraft and pushes the value of the order backlog of the supersonic business jet to more than $6.5 billion.

While announcing the agreement on Wednesday morning, Aerion did not disclose the number of aircraft involved but the deal is among orders that have helped significantly push up the value of the backlog this year. The company's backlog was in the $3 billion range just six months ago.

Aerion plans to begin assembly of the AS2 in 2023, with the first flight coming in 2025 and market entry in the 2027 timeframe. The company envisions building 300 of the Mach 1.4 jets in its first decade of production. Avion Pacific will be among the first customers to take delivery in the expected 2027 service entry date.

This latest order was part of a larger strategic marketing and sales agreement between the two companies, one Aerion that said opens a gateway to the Asia market for the AS2. Avion Pacific will be a preferred partner and collaborate with Aerion on Asia-Pacific market intelligence and support sales and marketing efforts to help Aerion establish a presence in the region.

Based in Shenzhen, Avion Pacific has offices in a number of major cities in China and provides fixed and rotary aircraft sales, distribution, flight services, spares, leasing, and other support.

“This partnership signals another major milestone as we look to establish Aerion as the definitive global name in supersonic travel,” said Aerion chairman, president, and CEO Tom Vice. “We are delighted to welcome Avion Pacific to our ever-expanding global team and look forward to our future collaboration as we bring a new era in sustainable supersonic travel, encapsulated in a unique luxury user experience to customers around the world.”

Avion Pacific chairman Wu Zhendong added that “the AS2 is an aircraft that will shape the future of private aviation in Asia and globally and we at Avion Pacific wanted to be part of that.”