On 4 September 2025, Air Côte d'Ivoire took delivery of its first Airbus A330-900. The aircraft, registered TU-TRG (2086), was handed-over with a special delivery ceremony and departed to Abidjan.
It's the first of two A330-900s the airline ordered in 2022. Initially, the type will be deployed between Abidjan and Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Air Côte d'Ivoire, however, has also said it has interest in using the A330-900 on new routes to Brussels, London-Heathrow, and New York-JFK.
Next to its new A330neo, the fleet of airline is made-up of five A319s, two A320s, one A320neo, and four DHC-8-400s.
Condor has decided to expand its Airbus A330-900-fleet by ordering more of them. In total, the airline has placed a firm order for four more aircraft, with options on another four. Deliveries are scheduled to commence from 2027 onwards.
With this latest order, Condor now has placed firm orders for 25 A330-900s. Eighteen of those have already been delivered and are operational within the airline's-fleet. Next to the A330-900s, the fleet is further made-up of two wet-leased Airbus A319s, ten wet-leased A320s, ten A320s operated by themselves, three A320neos, thirteen A321, six A321neos, and seven Boeing B757-300s.
A happy moment for ITA Airways on 27 April 2023 as its first Airbus A330neo took to the skies for the very first time. The aircraft, A330-900 F-WWYO (2035) conducted a 3:45 hour testflight from Toulouse. Delivery is expected in June and the aircraft will become EI-HJN.
The aircraft is the first of seventeen A330-900s the airline has acquired. Ten of these have been ordered directly with Airbus, the remaining seven are leased from AerCap (two) and Air Lease Corporation (five). ITA Airways will use the new A330s to replace its current fleet of eight A330-200s. The first destinations it will fly it to from Rome-Fiumicino will be Delhi, Miami (FL), New York-JFK (NY), and São Paulo.
Next to the A330s, ITA Airways growing fleet consists of four A220-300s, eighteen A319s, 27 A320s, five A320neos, and six A350-900s.
Queen Of The Skies - Virgin Atlantic's 4th Airbus A330neo Touches Down
Virgin Atlantic has welcomed another Airbus A330neo, which it has named 'Queen Of The Skies' in homage to the late Queen Elizabeth II. The aircraft touched down at London Heathrow yesterday and becomes the fourth A330neo in the Virgin fleet.
Queen of the Skies returns
Readers scanning the headline of this article may have thought it another April Fool's joke, but Virgin isn't bringing back the Boeing 747. The airline has christened its latest Airbus A330neo 'Queen of the Skies', a moniker also bestowed on the iconic 747. The brand-new widebody (registration: G-VEII) can seat up to 262 passengers - 32 in Virgin's business 'Upper Class' (including two Retreat Suites), 46 in premium economy and 184 in economy.
Since receiving its first A330neo in October 2022, the airline has inducted three more and will gradually phase out its older A330-300s, of which it still operates 10 - the next-generation A330neo is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines and offers 25% less fuel burn and carbon emissions compared to previous generation aircraft.
Not the first with this name
G-VEII is in fact the second plane in the Virgin Atlantic fleet to be named Queen of the Skies. One of the airline's now-retired Airbus A340s (registration: G-VEIL) was given this name back in 2004 during a ceremony led by the Queen herself, and served the carrier for over 12 years before it was withdrawn from use in 2016.
The airline announced the name of the aircraft back in January via its Twitter account, joining its three other A330neos - Billie Holiday (G-VJAZ), Space Oddity (G-VTOM), and Eliza Doolittle (G-VLDY). The jet would complete its customer acceptance flight on March 24th before departing Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) at 13:18 on March 31st, arriving at Virgin's London Heathrow (LHR) base at 13:47.
Up to 16 A330neos
Virgin Atlantic has an order for 16 Airbus A330neos for delivery until 2026. The carrier first announced its order with Airbus back in June 2016 - for 10 A330neos and options for six more - with deliveries to take place between 2018 and 2020. However, the COVID pandemic forced Virgin to re-think its fleet plans, and it delayed deliveries of its neos until late-2022.
Airbus delivered 57 aircraft in September, the most it has in any month this year. The bulk of the deliveries were of the narrowbody A320 family, with 43 aircraft. Airbus also delivered nine widebodies, with two A330-900s and seven A350s (four -900s and three -1000). Deliveries jumped by 50% compared to August, signaling a slight recovery for the planemaker.
Airbus saw deliveries jump 50% in September, led by the A320 family. Photo: Getty Images
Most deliveries in 2020
September is officially Airbus’ most successful month in terms of deliveries this year. Airbus delivered 57 jets this month compared to 55 in February, before the pandemic really took hold globally. This is a significant milestone for Airbus, which saw orders and deliveries crater in April, at the peak of the current crisis.
IndiGo took delivery of the most aircraft this month, with four of the A320 family type. Photo: Airbus
This recovery has been mainly driven by the popularity of the A320 family of aircraft. Airlines continue to take delivery of the A320neo and A321neo, as narrowbody aircraft remain much more in use than widebody fleets.
Meanwhile, Airbus also delivered five of the popular A220-300s, with three going to Air Canada and two to EgyptAir. Indian low-cost airline IndiGo took the most deliveries this month, with one A320neo and three A321neos.
Widebody deliveries rise slightly
Widebody deliveries also picked up the pace this month, with nine in total arriving with their owners. Delta picked up a bulk of this month’s widebodies, taking delivery of both A330neos and two A350-900s.
While still down from the high of 11 planes in February, airlines are looking to start adding widebodies again. Finnair and Cathay Pacific both took delivery of one A350-900 each, while Virgin Atlantic took delivery of two A350-1000s. Cathay Pacific took one as well.
Cathay Pacific’s new A350s could be heading straight into storage as the airline renegotiates its delivery plans with Airbus. For now, airlines are still looking to avoid taking on bigger aircraft as international demand remains curtailed for the near future.
Airbus optimistic about the future
This month’s figures have Airbus feeling upbeat, with the European planemaker setting a new target for this year. According to Reuters, Airbus is hoping to reach 500 deliveries this year, down from 863 last year. This goal comes after Airbus declined to give a delivery target for this year due to the evolving crisis.
Airbus has delivered 341 aircraft until September this year, which means it needs to get another 159 planes to its owners by the end of this year to meet this goal. This would mean around 53 aircraft every month, a lofty goal for this volatile year.
The next few months will be critical for the industry as rising cases and the winter threatens to plunge travel demand once again. If current figures do hold steady for the rest of the year, Airbus might be able to reach its target, but it will not be an easy feat.
The brand new widebody jet supplements the Portuguese leisure specialist's only other aircraft, an A330-300, which until the COVID-19 crisis, was used on regular flights from Lisbon to resorts in the Caribbean.
F-ONET (msn 1938), an aircraft delivered to Aircalin in early October 2019, was withdrawn from revenue flights on October 29, 2019, after operating from Sydney Kingsford Smith to Nouméa La Tontouta, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. After operating a pair of test flights around Nouméa, it was subsequently flown via Osaka Kansai to Toulouse over the course of November 16-18, 2019.
Airbus and Rolls-Royce mechanics were reportedly not able to solve the problem in New Caledonia, prompting the need to ferry the aircraft back to Toulouse.
Aircalin continues to operate the other of its two A330-900s, F-ONEO (msn 1937).
The New Caledonian flag carrier reactivated its only remaining A330-200, F-OJSE (msn 510) to cover for the absence of one -900. Chief Commercial Officer William Le Grand recently told ch-aviation that the airline retained the -200 in case the -900s would experience teething issues.
Similar problems were experienced by TAP Air Portugal (TP, Lisbon) on some of its sixteen A330-900s earlier this year.
Air Côte d'Ivoire welcomes 1st Airbus A330-900
