Been away in UK for a few days there so had no net access!!

Aircoach started off with B10M Jonckheere Mistrals didn't they, so may just be a return to what they know.  The Gobus Jonck's are leased from the Bernard Kavanagh group who have consistantly bought Jonckheere's for years on both Volvo and Scania chassis.  The Gobus vehicles were delivered to Urlingford in 2008/2009 but held unregistered in stock due to market conditions until Gobus leased them.  The Kavanagh's preferred VanHool and Irizar for the last few years but there's always been a few Jonck's in the fleet too.  There were a number of Mistral's in the Eirebus fleet and Kavanagh's own fleet had a large number of Volvo/Scania Deauvilles in the 90's as well as taking batches of ex Parks of Hamilton Jonck Deauville/P45's

From any of the pictures I've seen of the new Futura I reckon they are simply an upgrade of the Magiq body.  The profile and shape of the body is remarkably close to the Magiq and I reckon it is the basis for the design.  For some reason UK operators absolutely love the Futura body (as they do Dennis chassis) while Irish drivers/operators, generally speaking, can;t stand them!  I don't know if our raods bring out the worst in these vehicles or what but UK operatoirs can't get enough of them.  Other than the recent batches to Kingdom Coaches (and the single vehicle to Donegal Coaches) there has been no uptake on new Futura's in the Irish market at all.