Commercial Aviation News

Australia’s national carrier has taken delivery of its first new generation A220, becoming the 20th operator of the type. The aircraft is the first of 29 A220s ordered by the Qantas Group for operation by QantasLink, their regional airline that services metropolitan and regional destinations across Australia. Featuring a unique livery based on an Aboriginal artwork, the aircraft will depart the Airbus final assembly line in Mirabel in the coming days for a delivery flight to Sydney, with stops in Vancouver, Honolulu and Nadi. The A220 will gradually replace the existing 717 fleet at QantasLink. Flying twice as far, the A220 can connect any two points across Australia non-stop, while also bringing a significant 25% reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions compared to previous-generation aircraft.

Azul discloses a firm order for four additional A330-900 from a purchase agreement signed in June 2023. With these aircraft, the airline will expand its fleet and international route offering. “We are proud to announce this order, as it confirms Azul as the airline with the most fuel- efficient fleet in the region, with over 80% of our capacity coming from next-generation aircraft. With the five A330neos we currently operate and the seven we now have on order, we will standardize our international fleet, allowing us to further enhance Azul’s renowned customer experience and on-time performance,” said Alexandre Malfitani, Azul’s Chief Financial Officer.

By the end of November 2023, Airbus’ highly successful A320 Family had already logged 1,395 orders, including the single largest order for 500 aircraft, from Indian airline Indigo. 2023 is following a trend: in 2022, the A320 Family logged 857 orders. The market for single-aisle aircraft has bounced back strongly from the dark days of the COVID pandemic. Airlines worldwide particularly appreciate the modern, efficient and versatile A320 Family. In recent years the Family’s largest model, the A321neo, has been successful both in terms of volumes and speed of sales. The variant accounts for around two-thirds of the 6,739 A320 Family aircraft in Airbus’ current order book. To keep up with such strong demand, Airbus is growing its global industrial footprint with the goal of bringing A320 Family production up to 75 aircraft per month in 2026. At the same time, the company’s single-aisle final assembly lines (FALs) are evolving to produce a mix of aircraft models with new cabin and comfort standards. Airbus is doubling the number of FALs capable of producing the A321neo, compared to 2019. By 2026, ten A320 Family FALs around the world will be capable of producing the A321neo.

Traveling domestic on Air New Zealand? Then you may soon be able to benefit from Starlink internet onboard. Starlink will be installed on a domestic jet as well as on an ATR. Yes...an ATR in late 2024. Once these trials yield the desired results then Air New Zealand will look to roll out Starlink internet on other aircraft in its domestic fleet in 2025.

Lufthansa Group has ordered more planes. This time it is the Airbus A220. Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commented: “With today's order for 40 additional Airbus A220s, we are continuing our unique partnership with Airbus. Just a few months ago, as the largest airline customer, we received our 600th aircraft from Airbus, and we look forward to taking delivery of number 700. Our customers are looking forward to these additional modern, economical, and fuel-efficient aircraft.” Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Airbus International, said: "The Lufthansa Group was one of the first customers for the A220 and has successfully operated the aircraft in its SWISS route network ever since. We are delighted by this testimony of confidence from our long-standing partner and customer. As the only clean sheet design aircraft and specifically designed for the 100-150 seat market the A220 is the most efficient solution in its category to support Lufthansa Group meeting its exciting airline development and sustainability objectives.”

EasyJet makes a firm order for 157 A320neo family aircraft. The order covers 56 A320neo and 101 A321neo. They are also upgrading existing A320neo orders to A321neos. Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, commented: “We are very pleased to be able to confirm this significant order which not only enables easyJet to replace its older aircraft with more efficient aircraft, a core component of our net zero roadmap, but also provides us ability for disciplined growth, including the significant opportunity that upgauging brings. With this order easyJet will be able to continue to cement its leading position at Europe’s primary airports and so we look forward to working in partnership with Airbus in the years to come.”

Winter ops with Air Baltic.

EVA Air has firmed the order for 18 Airbus A350-1000 and 15 Airbus A321neos. The announcement was actually made in Dec 2023 but recently firmed on. "We have selected the Airbus aircraft following a thorough evaluation of the various models in each market segment," says EVA president Clay Sun. Apparently the A35K's will replace the airlines' Boeing 77W (777-300ER) aircraft. There is no timeline given on the deliveries.

With the massive 150 MAX order from Akasa Air, the airlines needs powerplants to fly those planes. This is why the airline has just ordered more than 300 CFM LEAP 1B engines. Vinay Dube, Founder and CEO of Akasa Air, commented: “This significant, long-term agreement is testament to the confidence that CFM International has in Akasa Air. Continuing to partner with CFM as our engine maintenance provider not only reaffirms our focus on operational reliability but equally underscores Akasa Air’s relentless pursuit of world class safety. With CFM as our long-term engine maintenance provider, we remain confident in our path to becoming one of the top 30 leading airlines in the world, by the turn of this decade.” Gaël Méheust, president & CEO of CFM International, said: “Our customers, including Akasa, are seeing 15 to 20 percent better fuel efficiency with their LEAP-powered fleets and it has the highest reliability and daily utilization rates in this thrust class. Today’s order will continue to bring these benefits to Akasa and support their continued growth, as well as play an important role in India’s economic development.”

Royal Jordanian has taken delivery of its first two Embraer E195 E2 aircraft. The full agreement, announced in May 2023, is for eight aircraft in total – six aircraft from Azorra’s existing backlog with Embraer, plus two further E195-E2 firm orders from the airline directly with Embraer. Samer Majali, Vice Chairman/CEO of Royal Jordanian Airlines, says: “We’re looking forward to becoming the first E2 operator in the Middle East, supported by our trusted partners at Azorra. The E2 family of aircraft will support our strategic aims, complementing our larger narrow body aircraft by matching capacity to demand, reducing operating costs and carbon emissions, while delivering a significant upgrade to passenger experience and comfort; underlining our status as the preferred airline in the region.”

CFM International is being kept busy with producing powerplants for narrowbodies. Another big order has come in from EasyJet which has ordered some 300 plus CFM LEAP 1A engines for their 157 A320neo family order. The order from the airline for the planes is broken down into 56 A320neo and 101 A321neo aircraft. As for the engines, they will have to wait 'til around 2029 as that is when the deliveries are expected. Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, commented: “We are very pleased to have signed a deal with CFM, following a competitive selection process. This agreement for more than 300 engines will provide important environmental benefits through a significant improvement in fuel efficiency and a reduction in noise as well as enable easyJet to continue to affirm its leading position at Europe’s primary airports. easyJet has a long history working with CFM and look forward to continuing to work in partnership in the years to come.”

Boeing added some orders to its 787 backlog at the Singapore Air Show. On the first day the American airframer received an order from Thai airways as well as Royal Brunei. Thai committed to 45 Dreamliners and Royal Brunei 4. For Thai, the first 10 aircraft are to be of the 787-9 variant and there is a flexibility component where they can switch to the -10 variant or even the 777X. These orders were actually done in December but never revealed to the public until the Singapore Air Show. As for Royal Brunei, they will be ordering 4 787-9 versions. The airline already operates the smaller -8 variant.

RECARO Aircraft Seating has another contract from Condor, the German carrier. It will ship the BL3710 and SL3710 seats for the economy class cabins of their A321 and A320 aircraft that are currently on order. The order includes 28 Airbus A321 and 13 A320 aircraft to be delivered between 2024 and 2028. The nearly 9,000 seats ordered will be installed in a hybrid layout and feature the new distinctive Condor branding.

Last Airbus Beluga transport plane.

Not news but I saw this video with a Ryanair 737 landing in some fog at Bremen. Pretty cool.

Iberia's first Airbus A321XLR, in fact the first A321XLR for any airline. As far as I am aware, Aer Lingus was supposed to have been the launch customer but they took a backseat to their stablemate Iberia. It was an IAG order so it is all within the same group.

Those traveling between Dubai and Bahrain and Dubai and Kuwait booking with Emirates would soon be flying on an Airbus A350. That is quite a large aircraft to be flying such short sectors as the distance is less than 300 miles. Both services are expected to commence on the 8th of January. The A350 is one of the newer plane types added to the Emirates fleet after ordering around 65 from Airbus. The airline should be taking delivery of these units through to 2028.

The GTF powerplant by Pratt & Whitney that is to power the Airbus A321 XLR has been given the green light by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “This is an important milestone for the GTF engine program, which was the first engine to power the A320neo aircraft family,” said Rick Deurloo, president of commercial engines at Pratt & Whitney. “The longer range and higher payload capability of the Airbus A321XLR aircraft will provide customers with expanded route flexibility to more destinations. A321XLR operators will benefit from the GTF’s best-in-class fuel efficiency and the lowest carbon emissions available for single-aisle aircraft.” The engine type certificate, granted on December 12 and applicable to the PW1100G-JM engine, was updated to include the A321XLR.

Air Canada, the national carrier of Canada, has signed a firm order with Airbus for five more latest generation single-aisle A220-300s on the fifth anniversary since taking delivery of its first A220 in December 2019. This follows an initial order in 2016 for 45 A220-300s and a reorder in 2022 for 15 more. Including this latest reorder, Air Canada’s total firm orders for the A220-300 stands at 65 aircraft.

Aer Lingus takes delivery of its first Airbus A321 XLR aircraft. The airline becomes the second in the world to operate the A321XLR as well as the second in the International Airlines Group (IAG).
Powered by CFM LEAP-1A engines, the aircraft took off from the Airbus production site in Hamburg, Germany, on 18 December to Aer Lingus’ home base at Dublin airport, Ireland.

The Aer Lingus A321XLR is configured with 184 seats in a two-class layout featuring 16 full-flat Business Class and 168 Economy Class seats. It is the first aircraft in the Aer Lingus fleet to offer passengers and cabin crew the enhanced comfort of Airbus’ Airspace Cabin, featuring XL overhead bins with 60% more storage space compared to previous generation aircraft. In addition, in-seat connectivity is available to all passengers while the latest lighting system enhances the overall passenger experience.