Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Aviation News Updates

This week industry updates include IndiGo’s deal for 250 A320neo aircraft, Garuda Indonesia’s order for 50 Boeing 737MAX 8 aircraft and Alaska Airlines ordering 10 additional Boeing 737-900ER’s. Virgin Atlantic pulls the plug on Little Red and meanwhile took delivery of its first Boeing 787-9. The first A350-900 for Qatar Airways made its maiden flight, while Airbus announced to reduce the monthly A330 production by late 2015. Ethiopian Airlines is planning to launch Los Angeles via Dublin, while Vistara showed its first painted A320 and Austrian is to decide on its Fokker replacement.

IndiGo signs MoU for 250 Airbus 320neo aircraft

IndiGo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus for up to 250 A320neo family aircraft. When the order will be firmed, it will be the largest Airbus order ever in number of aircraft. The Indian lowcost carrier currently operates over 80 A320 aircraft on its mainly domestic network in India (where it has a market share of over 30%) and also serves destinations in the UAE, Singapore, Oman, Thailand and Nepal. Previously the carrier already placed orders with Airbus for 100 A320ceo and 180 A320neo aircraft.

Garuda Indonesia orders 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8’s

Garuda Indonesia ordered 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft last month, previously booked on Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries page as an ‘unidentified order’. Garuda Indonesia confirmed the order in a statement to the Indonesian Stock Exchange, commenting that the aircraft will be delivered between 2017 and 2023. Garuda currently operates 75 Boeing 737-800’s with 30 more on order, the new MAX 8 aircraft will be used to replace the oldest 737-800’s. The Indonesian airline is currently retiring its last 737Classic aircraft, being replaced by new 737-800 deliveries. — Boeing/Garuda Indonesia –

Alaska Airlines orders 10 additional Boeing 737-900ER’s, retires 737 Classics

On October 6, Alaska Airlines announced an order for 10 Next-Generation (NG) B737-900ER’s. The Seattle-based airline now has 74 Boeing 737’s on order, 37 B737-900ER aircraft and 37 of the MAX series (20 MAX8 and 17 MAX9). President and CEO of the all-Boeing operator: “We love having Seattle as our home and buying locally built airplanes is a point of pride for us. These new planes will allow us to serve our customers even better with improved in-cabin experience, including our new leather Recaro seats with added leg room, power outlets at every seat and larger overhead bins.” Alaska Airlines will continue to replace its Boeing 737-400 Classic fleet with the newer and larger -900ER’s which have a 25% higher capacity while using the same amount of fuel. Alaska Airlines has 21 B737-400’s left in a full passengers lay-out, in addition to five Combi’s and one full freighter.


Virgin Atlantic pulls the plug on Little Red

After obtaining London Heathrow slots for domestic operations from the British Airways/bmi merger, Virgin Atlantic launched Little Red in 2013 operating three domestic routes. In March/April 2013 Little Red started operating from London Heathrow to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester with wet-leased Airbus 320 aircraft of Irish operator Aer Lingus. For a long time Virgin turned down rumours that the routes were operating way below expectations, but now they decided to pull the plug. The Manchester route will end on March 28, 2015, while Aberdeen and Edinburgh will end on September 26, 2015. — Virgin Atlantic –

Virgin Atlantic takes delivery of first Boeing 787-9

On October 10, the first Boeing 787-9 of Virgin Atlantic touched down at London Gatwick after a non-stop delivery flight from Everett (Washington, USA). The aircraft has been named “Birthday Girl” in reference to the 30 year existence of Virgin Atlantic and is the first of 16 Dreamliners ordered by Virgin Atlantic. The first aircraft will be used for the route London Heathrow-Boston as from October 28 onwards. Future deliveries in December, January and February will be used for Washington DC, Newark and New York JFK respectively. The aircraft are fitted with 264 seats in a three-class configuration with 31 Business Class seats (Upper Class), 35 in Premium Economy and 198 in Economy. Virgin-founder Richard Branson also commented that Virgin considers ordering more Boeing 787’s and in particular the longer 787-10 version.


Bombardier CSeries preferred Austrian Fokker replacement?

Anonymous sources said to be directly related to the Fokker 70 and 100 replacement project of Austrian Airlines, said that the Bombardier CSeries is the preferred option. The sources said Austrian has requested its mother company Lufthansa for approval to order 16 CSeries aircraft to replace its 15 Fokker 100’s and 6 Fokker 70’s. If this would be for the CS100 or larger CS300 version or both, was not specified. Other options are said to be the Airbus 319 and Embraer E-190. Sister company Swiss European Airlines already has 30 CS100 aircraft on order to replace its fleet of 20 Avro RJ-100 jets, the first aircraft will be delivered in 2015. Swiss also holds 30 additional options for the CSeries. — Globe & Mail –

First Qatar Airways Airbus 350 makes maiden flight

On October 15 around 14:20 local time, the first A350-900 for Qatar Airways departed from Toulouse (France) for the first time. It was the first flight of a serial production A350 airframe. Qatar Airways will become the first airline to receive Airbus’ newest Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered flagship by the end of this year. CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, commented that the aircraft could be delivered in the first two weeks of December. Airbus holds 750 orders for the A350, of which 549 for the -900 base version.

Ethiopian Airlines planning to launch Los Angeles via Dublin in 2015

Ethiopian Airlines says it’s finalising its plans to launch flights to the US West Coast. The African Star Alliance member is planning to launch flights from its hub Addis Ababa to Los Angeles in June 2015, the flights would be operated via Dublin (Ireland). The flights will be operated three times per week with Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, of which Ethiopian Airlines was one of the first users. Dublin Airport commented that Ethiopian Airlines will sell tickets both on the Dublin-Los Angeles and on the Dublin-Addis Ababa legs seperately. Ethiopian Airlines already serves Washington DC and Toronto in North America. — Ethiopian Airlines/Dublin Airport –

Vistara unveils livery on its first Airbus 320

Indian start-up Vistara showed its first painted A320 at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport when it arrived there on 15 October, being welcomed with a water salute. Vistara, which is a joint-venture of Singapore Airlines and the Indian TATA group, is supposed to take delivery of 18 more A320’s in addition to its first two that have been recently delivered. All aircraft will be leased from Singapore-based BOC Aviation. Vistara was planning to launch operations in late October, but miss out on this deadline due to delays in the final approvals from the Indian DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation).


Airbus to reduce A330 production rate in 2015

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Airbus will reduce the monthly A330 production rate from 10 to 9. Tom Williams (Executive vice-president programmes at Airbus) says this will allow Airbus to maintain a smooth production flow as it starts the transition to the new A330neo version. Airbus started producing 10 A330’s per month in 2013, which at that time was the highest production output for a widebody aircraft. The European aircraft manufacturer has a backlog of 233 baseline A330’s (all versions: passenger, freight, military) and holds commitments for 121 A330neo aircraft from 6 airlines and leasing companies. The A330neo which as announced this year at the Farnborough Airshow, will enter service in the fourth quarter of 2017

No comments:

Featured post

A body has been found in a Lufthansa A340’s landing gear at Frankfurt airport

  A dead body has been found in the undercarriage of a Lufthansa aircraft that arrived at #Frankfurt airport from Tehran. German newspaper B...