AirAsia launches Cambodia branch
On 2 May 2024, AirAsia Cambodia launched its commercial operations after it secured its Air Operator's Certificate on 30 April 2024. AirAsia's newest branch is based at Phnom Penh and starts with domestic flights serving Siem Reap and Sihanoukvile.
AirAsia Cambodia is a joint-venture between the AirAsia Group owning 51%, and local company Sivilai Asia owning 49% of the new airline. It currently has a single Airbus A320 in the fleet, which is registered XU-819 (5109) and was previously operated by Thai AirAsia. The new airline also has intentions to fly internationally and is planning to expand to other AirAsia hubs like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore soon.
The AirAsia Group is made-up of AirAsia (based in Malaysia), Indonesia AirAsia, Philippine AirAsia, Thai AirAsia, and Teleport and is owned by investment company Capital A.
Ealier this year, Capital A announced its plans to sell-off AirAsia Group in order to raise funds for growing its other businesses. The company reached an agreement with AirAsia X, in which the AirAsia Group is a minority owner. Once this deal is finalized, AirAsiaX is set to rebrand itself into AirAsia and consolidate all operations under that brand and discontinuing the X-brand.
AirAsia X was founded in 2006 as FlyAsian Express, flying as a domestic carrier. A year later, it was acquired by a joint-venture co-owned by the original founder of AirAsia, and rebranded into AirAsiaX. It was redesigned to become AirAsia's long-haul carrier, operating the Airbus A330-300. In 2014 it also established subsidiaries in Indonesia and Thailand, of which the latter is still flying today.
Buraq Air (UZ, Tripoli Mitiga) took delivery of its first A320-200 on October 6, 2023, after 5A-BAA (msn 5393) was ferried from Istanbul Atatürk to Tripoli Mitiga.
The 10.9-year-old aircraft underwent pre-delivery maintenance at East Midlands and was ferried to Türkiye on September 21, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. It was then re-registered in Libya ahead of delivery to Buraq Air. The aircraft has yet to enter into revenue service and the carrier did not disclose a timeline. It said, however, that it aims to become Libya's "number one" carrier with the "new" fleet.
Buraq currently operates one B737-400 and one B737-800, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows.
MYAirline secures more Airbus A320s
During this year's Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA 23), MYAirline has signed lease-agreements with Aircastle, Avolon, Genesis, and SMBC Aviation Capital to lease additional Airbus A320s. In total, the airline has secured leases for ten more aircraft, of which the first are to be delivered this year.
MYAirline launched flights in November 2022 and is operating a fleet of seven leased A320s out of Kuala Lumpur. From there, it flies to Bangkok, Kota Bharu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Langkawi, Miri, Penang, Sibu and Tawau.
The airline plans to use the new aircraft to increase frequencies but also add new destinations.
Photo by MYAirline.
Lynx Air (Y9, Calgary) has signed a wet-lease contract with the US's GLOBALX (G6, Miami International) for three months starting in June 2023 covering a single A320-200.
The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that GLOBALX operates A320ceo Family aircraft exclusively - currently, six A320-200s and three A321-200s. It intends to add an A319-100 and also operates a single A321-200(P2F) freighter. The carrier focuses on the charter market but also operates as a wet-lessor.
In turn, the Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier operates six B737-8s. It plans to grow its fleet to ten B737 MAX by the end of 2023, as recently outlined by Chief Executive Officer and President Merren McArthur in an interview with ch-aviation, and then to forty-six aircraft in the next four to five years.
Air Arabia Maroc (3O, Casablanca Mohamed V) has signed a wet lease agreement with Bulgaria's Fly2Sky (F6, Sofia) for three A320ceo Family aircraft covering the Summer 2023 season.
"We are thrilled to partner with Air Arabia and support their growth by providing them with additional aircraft during the busy summer season. The three aircraft deal is a testament to the strong relationship between Fly2Sky and its partners with a focus on providing the highest quality of service," Fly2Sky Chief Commercial Officer Aleksandrs Gusevs said.
The Bulgarian ACMI/charter specialist said the contract would cover a mix of A320-200s and A321-200s but did not specify the exact split. It did not respond to ch-aviation's request for added colour. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Fly2Sky's fleet comprises two A320s and two A321s, with an additional A320 due to deliver shortly.
The Moroccan unit of the Emirati LCC group operates nine A320-200s. Fly2Sky did not reveal where the wet-leased aircraft would be based. Air Arabia Maroc has bases at Casablanca Mohamed V, Fes, Nador, and Tangiers airports.
Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma Int'l) has completed the phase-out of all of its A320-200s inherited from Virgin America (San Francisco, CA) following that carrier's 2018 takeover.
The type has exited the active fleet as of January 9, 2023, just a few days behind the most recent schedule which foresaw an accelerated retirement by the end of 2022. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Alaska Airlines operated 29 leased A320s in mid-2022 and began their retirement in July 2022. Just 12 remained in the fleet at the end of 2022, of which six operated their last flight on January 8 and the other six the day later.
The 29 Airbus aircraft are currently in storage at Victorville (17 units), Greensboro (nine), Lake City, Everett, and San Antonio Int'l (one each).
The airline plans to retire all DHC-8-Q400s operated by its Horizon Air (QX, Seattle Tacoma Int'l) subsidiary by the end of the current quarter, and all ten A321-200Ns (ordered by Virgin America, although six were delivered post-takeover directly to Alaska Airlines) by the end of the year. Alaska Air Group's long-term fleet plan focuses on B737NG/MAX for the mainline and E175s for Horizon Air.
Sky Cana (RD, Santo Domingo Las Américas) has increased the number of aircraft it wet-leases from Avion Express Malta (X8, Malta Int'l) under a long-term agreement to five, adding the first two A320-200s to the previously sourced three A321-200s.
9H-MLD (msn 3601) and 9H-MLV (msn 4118) were ferried from Düsseldorf via Reykjavik Keflavik and Halifax to Puerto Plata over the course of November 13-14, 2022, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. Both aircraft are painted in Sky Cana's liveries, advertising destinations in the Dominican Republic, and will be placed on the AOC of Sky Cana's commercial partner, Air Century (Y2, Santo Domingo La Isabela). While Sky Cana has its own permit, it is not authorised to operate passenger flights to the US with large aircraft.
The three A321-200s will continue operating on behalf of Sky Cana through Air Century. While the aircraft primarily fly for the Dominican carrier, they also operate a limited number of flights on behalf of Haiti's Sunrise Airways (S6, Port au Prince), connecting Port au Prince with Santo Domingo Las Américas and destinations in Cuba.
The Haitian carrier separately entered into a code-share agreement with Cubana (CU, Havana Int'l), which covers all of its Haiti-Cuba services out of Havana Int'l, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, and Holguin. Cubana's fleet is currently nearly wholly grounded. It appears to be using a single ATR42-500 wet-leased from fellow state-owned carrier Aerogaviota (GTV, Havana Int'l) to operate domestic flights and also wet-leases an A340-300 from Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas (PU, Madrid Barajas) to operate services to Madrid Barajas.
Ibom Air (QI, Uyo) is planning to wet-lease two A320-200s from Lithuania's GetJet Airlines (GW, Vilnius) under a long-term contract.
LY-FAS (msn 4273) and LY-GYM (msn 2584) have both received Ibom Air's full livery but remain parked at Madrid Barajas for maintenance. GetJet told ch-aviation that it was still ironing out details with the Nigerian regional carrier and would not confirm the duration of the contract.
The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Ibom Air's fleet comprises five CRJ900s. The airline has a firm order for ten A220-300s with deliveries scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023. The A220s will complement rather than replace the CRJs.
For its part, GetJet Airlines operates a single A319-100, six A320s, and three B737-800s. It also has a single B737-400 in storage.
Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma Int'l) has scheduled the end of its A320-200 operations for January 8, 2023, marginally later than previously announced.
The ch-aviation schedules module shows that the carrier plans to continue operating the type out of its four main bases - Seattle Tacoma Int'l, Portland Int'l, Los Angeles Int'l, and San Francisco, CA - through the last day. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows the airline currently operates thirty-seven A320-200s, of which only 25 remain active. All of the aircraft are leased. Alaska Airlines previously said all A320s would exit the fleet by the end of 2022.
All of the A320s, as well as previously exited A319-100s and still active A321-200Ns, were inherited by Alaska Airlines after its takeover of Virgin America. The A321neo will leave the fleet by the end of 2023. Afterwards, Alaska Airlines plans to consolidate its mainline fleet around the B737 MAX family, while its regional subsidiary Horizon Air (QX, Seattle Tacoma Int'l) will focus on operating E175s.
Nordic Aviation Group has acquired its first A320-200 and plans to induct it into ACMI/charter service on July 1, 2022.
In a press release, the Estonian state-owned holding said the acquisition would allow it to expand its ACMI/charter business to a broader range of potential customers.
"After six years of successful operations in the regional CPA/ACMI market, we are ready to enter this much bigger market segment. It provides us with new business opportunities and creates new valuable competencies within our group. Major airlines are more and more focusing on their main competitive business segments and outsourcing regional operations and adding ACMI’s for seasonal peak narrowbody capacities will grow in the future," the chief executive of Xfly (Estonia) (EE, Tallinn Lennart Meri), Jan Palmer, said.
Chief Commercial Officer Anton Önnik added that the airline sees potential to grow its fleet to ten A320s "over the next few years".
The A320 will become the second aircraft on the Nordica (ND, Tallinn Lennart Meri) Air Operator's Certificate following CRJ900 ES-ACD (msn 15276). The carrier said the Airbus would be outfitted to seat up to 180 passengers but refused to identify the unit until later this spring. The remaining nine CRJ900s and eight ATR72-600s operated by Nordic Aviation Group are placed on the Xfly AOC.
Nordica currently operates a single scheduled Public Service Obligation route in Sweden, connecting Stockholm Arlanda with Arvidsjaur and Gällivare for which it wet leases a Fokker 100 from Carpatair (V3, Timisoara). In turn, Xfly is the group's ACMI specialist and operates all its aircraft under a long-term white-label agreement with SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
Chair Airlines (GM, Zurich) took delivery of its first A320-200, its largest type yet, on December 12, 2021, after HB-JOK (msn 3923) was ferried from Ostrava to Zurich in the Swiss carrier's livery. It has yet to be deployed into revenue service. The 12.6-year-old jet was previously operated by Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) and is owned by Merx Aviation Finance, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows.
The delivery was deferred in relation to the original schedule, which foresaw the induction of the type in November 2021. The A320 will join the airline's current fleet of two A319-100s, replacing a third A319-100, which was damaged beyond repair during maintenance at Naples Capodichino airport in mid-2020.
During the recent peak summer season, Chair Airlines supplemented its in-house fleet with a B737-800 wet-leased from 49%-shareholder Enter Air (E4, Warsaw Chopin). The addition of the third aircraft will therefore allow it to avoid wet-leasing in capacity going forward.
The World’s Most Flown Airbus A320s
The original Airbus A320 is an immensely popular single-aisle short-haul jetliner. Having entered service in April 1988 with Air France, thousands of examples remain active today, even since the new A320neo version hit the market. But, of the original A320s that are still flying, which examples have accumulated the most flight hours? Let’s find out!
According to ch-aviation.com, there are more than 4,000 active examples of the original A320-200 still flying today. These are spread across almost 250 operators. Meanwhile, none of the 21 examples of its counterpart, the A320-100, remain active today. Last year, Simple Flying explored where the world’s oldest A320s were, but what about the most active?
As it turns out, North America is the place to go for highly-used A320-200s. The busiest of these belongs to Air Canada, and bears the registration C-FKPT. Sporting 146 seats, this 29.6-year-old narrowbody had accrued an incredible 90,009 flight hours across nearly three decades of flying as of July this year. It has been with Air Canada its entire career.
Air Canada also operates the sixth-most highly-used active A320-200 left in the world today. Registered as C-FNVV, this example had amassed 86,884 hours by July this year. The 28.8-year-old jet had flown 33,144 cycles, with an average length of two hours and 37 minutes. This also translates to an average of eight hours and 20 minutes of use a day.
The remainder of the top 50 most-used active Airbus A320-200s belong to two US legacy carriers, namely Delta and United. Of these, the former has the highest-ranking examples, with N309US and N312US coming second and third respectively. N309US is 31.3 years old, and had accrued 89,638 hours across 41,045 cycles as of July 2021.
N312US wasn’t far behind at the time of the last measurement, when it clocked in at 89,106 hours. The 30.9-year-old twinjet had accrued these over 40,772 cycles, with an average length of two hours and 11 minutes. Its average daily usage was seven hours and 58 minutes. The A320-200 is Delta’s second oldest design on average, clocking in at 25.9 years.
Rounding out the rest of the top five most-used Airbus A320-200s is United Airlines, which flies the aircraft that rank both fourth and fifth. The busiest of these two is fourth-placed N405UA, which is conspicuously younger than the other examples thus far at ‘just’ 28.1 years old. It has accumulated 87,301 flight hours across 33,671 cycles during this time.
AirBahn (ARB, Santa Ana, CA) has accepted its first aircraft, an A320-200 transferred from its Pakistani sister carrier, AirBlue (PA, Karachi Int'l).
ch-aviation research shows AP-EDA (msn 3974) was added to the US register as N786PB on October 5, 2021. The 12.3-year-old Airbus aircraft was owned and operated by AirBlue as since new and until late October 2019. Subsequently, it was ferried for maintenance to Istanbul Atatürk and remains in Turkey for the time being.
In a recent US Department of Transportation (DOT) filing, the start-up revealed that it was currently on Phase 3 of five in its air carrier certification procedure. It expects to complete the gauntlet in December 2021 but acknowledged that it could extend into 2022 should the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) require revisions of its manuals or programs. Similarly, the process could be delayed by COVID-related problems in pilot training, and a scarcity of available simulators due to the high demand from existing carriers conducting recurrence training for crews recalled from furloughs.
In response to the pleading, the DOT extended the start-up's certificate validity through the end of January 2022 despite AirBahn's request for the end of June 2022. The airline was initially issued the certificate on October 7, 2020. US regulations require start-ups to launch operations within one year of receiving the certificate or lose it.
AirBahn is backed by the Chaudhary family, which also owns AirBlue. All members of the family are US citizens. The start-up applied to the DOT for a certificate of public convenience and necessity covering scheduled interstate flights ferrying passengers, cargo, and mail in October 2018. It was subsequently granted the authority two years later. In its 2018 application, the airline said it planned to launch with one A320-200 and add another dry-leased unit of the same type within the first 12 months of operations. It said that it would base its operations out of either Santa Ana, CA, initially focussing on operating scheduled flights within California, to Las Vegas McCarran, and Calgary.
The start-up's launch capital was provided by a shareholders' loan of USD2.5 million and a further USD11 million from Airways Lease Inc., another company owned by the Chaudharys.
PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the valuation of six A320-200s without engines it plans to sell.
According to the RFP, interested companies have until October 26 to submit their bids. Subsequently, the selected supplier will have two weeks to conduct the valuation, which will then enable PIA to move ahead with the disposal of the aircraft.
The carrier did not disclose the identity of the six A320-200s. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, PIA currently operates ten A320-200s.
Loss-making PIA is currently undergoing wide-ranging restructuring backed by the government. While the plan foresees a small reduction in fleet size from the current baseline of 30 units, PIA has never provided specific details as to how many aircraft and which types it will retain.
1st aircraft for Cobra Jet
Cobra Jet Aviation is an Egyptian charter start-up, which has taken delivery of its first aircraft, A320 SU-CJA (1895). As can be clearly seen the Airbus was previously operated by Qatar Airways (as A7-ADD).
The new airline is named after wadjet, the ancient Egyptian god for safety. Next to its A320, Cobra Jet is also planning to add an A340-300 to be able to also offer long-haul and high capacity charter flights. The airline is based at Cairo.
credit : Scramble.nl
Allegiant Secures 10 More Airbus A320s As It Sheds Pandemic Impact
As the air travel recovery continues in the United States, Allegiant Air is priming for the recovery. Reporting a profit of $95 million – higher than its second quarter of 2019 results – the carrier is firmly turning to growth as it comes out of the crisis. The carrier has secured leases for 10 more Airbus A320ceo aircraft for induction through 2022 to support the airline’s growth trajectory.
Allegiant Air has announced it has entered into an agreement with Air Lease Corporation for long-term leases on ten used Airbus A320-200 aircraft. The jets are scheduled to be delivered to the airline beginning in the fall of 2021 and through summer 2022.
Robert Neal, Allegiant’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Finance and Treasurer, spoke of the following on the acquisition:
“Bringing these ten aircraft into Allegiant’s fleet provides a number of advantages aligned with our unique business model and goals. As young, sharklet-equipped sister ships, they will not only afford efficient induction into our all-Airbus fleet, but will also provide years of utilization beyond the typical life of previously-operated aircraft. This transaction will be a valuable component of our fleet plan for 2022 and beyond.”
The ten A320s will all come in as 186-seat jets, which are the highest capacity aircraft Allegiant flies. This higher capacity comes in at a lower cost, allowing Allegiant to pass on lower fares to customers.
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Speaking on the airline’s second-quarter earnings call, the carrier’s executives discussed their growth plans for the fleet. Gregory Anderson, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Principal Accounting Officer at Allegiant, stated the following on the acquisition:
“Turning to fleet, during the second quarter we placed into service three aircraft bringing our total in service aircraft at June’s end to 103, and we expect to have 108 aircraft in service by year’s end. Since the onset of the pandemic, our fleet team has now signed up 24 A320 series aircraft – 21 of them since the beginning of this year – all at an average price discounted by 30% when compared to pre pandemic levels.”
Aircraft prices have gone down during the pandemic, and many airlines are now starting to take advantage of strategic growth. Allegiant, which prioritizes taking on mid-life, used Airbus A320 jets at a lower cost than acquiring new jets and flying them until the end of their lives.
Many airlines have made aircraft retirements or returned jets off of lease early, which has left lessors with more mid-life used aircraft, which can be a little tougher for lessors to find new homes for. This leads to some attractive pricing for airlines like Allegiant and makes them strategic investments.
Allegiant has not yet outlined its capacity increases for 2022, but it will be sitting on 127 aircraft next year, 19 more than it will have at the end of 2021. This will set the airline up for a fair bit of growth, though it is not immediately clear where Allegiant will distribute those aircraft.
Exiting the crisis, Allegiant Air has reported a $95 million profit for the second quarter of 2021. This is a stark turnaround from the $93 million loss it posted in the same quarter last year and is higher than the $70.5 million the carrier made in the second quarter of 2019. Of course, the airline also benefited from the $61.2 million it received under the Payroll Support Program (PSP), buoying its financial performance. Nevertheless, Allegiant was still one of the first carriers to report a profit in 2021.
Allegiant Air was the first airline in the US carrier to announce it will be increasing capacity north of 2019 levels in January. Since then, it has aggressively targeted growth opportunities and added more airports and routes to its network.
The added aircraft will certainly do Allegiant a lot of good in growing its fleet. This could be good news for secondary airports in the US looking to gain more nonstop service from an ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC). Keep an eye on Allegiant, as it is in its time to thrive and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Brazil’s Azul to add four more Airbus A321 freighters Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (AD, São Paulo Viracopos ) will add four more A321-2...
