Short Takes
February 19th 2016
MRO: Ameco Beijing has won a heavy maintenance contract from Condor Airlines for four B767s. The first Condor B767 will be inducted for a C-check in April. Swiss MRO SR Technics has signed a six-year component support contract with VietJet Air for the carrier’s A320 Family fleet. Read More » The new agreement expands on an existing cooperation between the two firms, with SR carrying out CFM56-5B services for VietJet.
AIRLINES: Emirates Airline and Oman Air have each purchased a slot pair at Heathrow from Air France-KLM. Malaysia Airlines Berhad will launch its new A330 business class product starting March 23 on the MH140/141 Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route, followed by Melbourne, Auckland and Narita in April and May.
MANUFACTURERS: Airbus has started final assembly of the first A350-1000 on schedule at the Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse. This A350-1000, one of three flight test aircraft to be built, will operate its maiden flight year-end, with first deliveries expected in mid-2017. Moreover, the first A321neo equipped with CFM International’s LEAP-1As completed its maiden flight on February 9, but has since been damaged in a tail strike at Perpignan. Airbus says the incident will not affect the first delivery to launch customer Qatar Airways scheduled “before the end of the year”. Bombardier has increased the maximum capacity of the Q400 by four additional seats, now offering a 90-seat, 28-inch pitch version of the turboprop. Meanwhile, it has reported a 2015 consolidated net loss of $5.34 billion, widened from a $1.25 billion net loss in 2014. Full-year revenue for the commercial aircraft segment was down 12.6% to $2.4 billion. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. has said it resumed flight testing of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ).
ROUTES: AirAsia will add a four-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Shantou A320 service starting March 25. Air Arabia will launch a five-weekly Sharjah-Sarajevo A320 route on March 18. Air Astana will start thrice-weekly Almaty-Tehran A320 operations from June 2. Air China will launch a thrice-weekly Chongqing-Dubai A330-200 flight on April 2. Air India Express will add a thrice-weekly Kochi-Dammam B737-800 service from May 28. Emirates Airline will add a sixth daily A380 rotation on the Dubai-Heathrow route from June 1. Garuda Indonesia will launch five-weekly Jakarta-Singapore-Heathrow three-class B777-300ER services from March 31, replacing current service to Gatwick. Oman Air will replace the A330 with the B787 on the double daily Muscat-Bangkok, and the four-weekly Muscat-Jakarta service starting March 27. Philippine Airlines (PAL) will add a fourth weekly frequency on the Manila-Darwin-Brisbane A320 service from March 27, and it will double frequency on the Manila-Beijing A320 route to eight-weekly starting July 1. SriLankan Airlines will terminate its thrice-weekly Colombo-Rome A330-200 rotation commencing May 1. Thai Airways International (THAI) will add an eleventh weekly frequency on the Bangkok-Sydney B747-400 route from April 3. V Air will launch a four-weekly Taoyuan-Manila A320/A321 service starting March 27.
