Airbus Updates No.4658

 

Israir to expand with A330-200s

Israir has announced it has acquired two Airbus A330-200s, which are scheduled for delivery in the coming weeks. The airline plans to use its new widebody-aircraft on new long-haul flights. The first destination announced is New York (NY), with flights starting the latest in September 2026.

The two aircraft involved were previously operated by American Airlines and have been stored since February and March 2020. They will be registered 4X-BAK (1095) and 4X-BAL (1100). Both are currently being prepared at Marana-Pinal Air Park (AZ).

It's not the first time the airline used an Airbus A330. Between April and December 2008, it wet-leased an A330-200 from Eurofly. The two new A330-200s will join Israir's-fleet that is currently made-up of eight A320s.

Competitor Arkia has also began operating the A330, wet-leasing two A330-200s from HiFly since November 2025.

Airbus Updates No.4393

 Airbus October 2024 orders & deliveries

Airbus has released its figures over October 2024. Last month, the European manufacturer was able to note down orders for 82 Airbuses. It also delivered 62 new aircraft to customers. The details can be found below.

Ordered were:

• 1 A321neo by American Airlines
• 3 A320neos by Drukair
• 2 A321neos by Drukair
• 1 ACJ320neo by a Private customer
• 60 A321neos by Riyadh Air
• 15 A320neos by Undisclosed customers

Delivered were:

• 1 A320neo to Aegean Airlines
• 1 A320neo to Air Cairo
• 2 A220-300s to Air France
• 1 A220-300 to Air Lease Corporation
• 1 A320neo to Avianca
• 2 A220-300s to Breeze Airways
• 1 A321neo to Cathay Pacific
• 2 A321neos to Cebu Pacific
• 1 A320neo to China Eastern Airlines
• 2 A321neo to China Eastern Airlines
• 1 A319neo to China Southern Airlines
• 1 A321neo to China Southern Airlines
• 1 A321neo to Condor
• 1 A330-900 to Corsair
• 1 A220-300 to Delta Air Lines
• 3 A321neos to Delta Air Lines
• 1 A330-900 to Delta Air Lines
• 1 A320neo to easyJet
• 3 A321neos to easyJet
• 2 A321neos to Frontier Airlines
• 1 A320neo to Huaxia Airlines
• 1 A321neo to Iberia
• 3 A320neos to IndiGo
• 1 A321neo to IndiGo
• 1 A220-100 to ITA Airways
• 1 A220-300 to ITA Airways
• 1 A350-1000 to Japan Airlines
• 1 A321neo to Jet2
• 2 A321neos to Jetstar Airways
• 1 A321neo to Juneyao Air
• 1 A320neo to KM Malta Airlines
• 1 A321neo to Loong Air
• 1 A350-900 to Lufthansa
• 1 A320neo to Nouvelair Tunesie
• 1 A321neo to Pegasus Airlines
• 1 A330-200 to the Royal Saudi Air Force
• 1 A320neo to Sky Airline
• 1 A319neo to Tibet Airlines
• 1 A320neo to Transavia France
• 2 A321neos to Turkish Airlines
• 1 A321neo to United Airlines
• 2 A321neos to VietJet Air
• 1 A330-900 to Virgin Atlantic Airways
• 1 A321neo to Viva Aerobus
• 1 A321neo to Volaris
• 1 A321neo to Xiamen Airlines
• 1 A321neo to Wizz Air

In total in 2024, Airbus has now received a total of 749 orders and nineteen cancellations, leaving a net of 730 orders. The number of deliveries stands at 559 aircraft.

Airbus Updates No.4323

 

Airbus receives EASA certification for the A321XLR

19 July 2024 is a happy day for Airbus as EASA has certified the A321XLR. With this final hurdle cleared, Airbus can now start delivery of the newest variant of the A321neo to its customers.

Originally, Airbus planned to had the A321XLR certified in 2023, with deliveries starting then as well. However, due to concerns about the fire safety of the new rear center fuel tank, certification was puhsed back. Thanks to this additional fuel tank, the XLR is able to fly 15% further than the A321neoLR (A321-200NX), with a maximum of 8,700 km.

Airbus has so far received more than 500 orders for the A321XLR. Iberia will be the launch customer, with delivery scheduled later this year. Entry into commercial service with the Spanish airline is planned for November and it will be first used to serve Boston from Madrid. In January 2025, Washington-Dulles is to follow.

Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo is the largest customer for the XLR and has orders for 69 A321-200NYs. A shared second place as largest customer for the type are for American Airlines and United Airlines, which both have 50 on order.

Airbus Updates No.4238

American Airlines orders hundreds of new aircraft

On 4 March 2024, American Airlines announced that it has placed orders for a total of 260 new narrowbody aircraft with Airbus, Boeing and Embraer. Airbus has received an order for 85 A321neos, Boeing for 85 B737-10s, and Embraer for 90 ERJ175s. The deal also includes options for 75 A321neos, 75 B737-10s, and 43 ERJ175s.

American Airlines also took the opportunity to convert 30 B737-8s it already had on order into the larger B737-10, of which the first is expected to arrive by 2028.

All new aircraft will be used to expand and renew the fleet, although the airline also announced that it will retrofit older A319s and A320s in the fleet. The ERJ175s will be replacing current 50-seat regional jets and will be operated by its production carriers Envoy Air and/or Piedmont.

Airbus Updates No.4132

 

American Airlines buys 10 Airbus A321neo from Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-200© Alaska Airlines

23.10.2023 - 13:32 UTC

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has bought ten second-hand A321-200Ns from Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International), the latter revealed in its quarterly earnings report.

Alaska Airlines retired the ten aircraft, which are just 5.6 years old on average, at the end of September 2023, as it pursues its fleet unification strategy centred on Boeing narrowbody jets. The aircraft were initially contracted by Virgin America on lease from GECAS in 2015. Only four were delivered to the low-cost carrier before its takeover by Alaska Airlines, while the other six entered into service directly with Alaska Airlines.

The ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows that Alaska Airlines owned one of the ten aircraft, while the other nine were leased - four from Jackson Square Aviation, two each from AerCap and SMBC Aviation Capital, and one from Merx Aviation Finance. The carrier recorded a USD14 million gain on the "interest expense associated with certain A321neo lease agreements which were modified as part of Alaska's fleet transition".

American Airlines already operates seventy A321-200NX and has four more on order from Airbus (as well as fifty A321-200NY(XLR)s). All of its current A321neo were delivered directly from the manufacturer.

Airbus Updates No.3822

 

Special livery for American Airlines A321

On 26 March, American Airlines unveiled a special livery on an Airbus A321 as a tribute dedicated to all recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The aircraft, A321-200 N167AN (7013) is named "Flagship Valor" and sports large medals as well as large "Medal of Honor"-titles.

Inside the Airbus, passengers can also scan QR-codes which will then provide them with information on the Medal of Honor.

Photo by American Airlines.

Airbus Updates No.2887

 

American Airlines retires Airbus A330-200s

American Airlines Airbus A330-300© American Airlines

26.10.2020 - 02:39 UTC

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has decided to permanently retire all of its remaining A330-200s, the last of its widebody Airbus aircraft.

"As we have spoken about in the past, our long-held strategy has been to drive efficiencies through the simplification of our fleet. With the permanent retirement of our A330-200 fleet announced this morning, we now have only four aircraft types [families] in our mainline fleet: the B737, the A320, the B787, and the B777," Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said during an earnings call.

Before the announcement, American Airlines had fifteen A330-200s in its fleet. The aircraft are 8.9 years old on average and are all owned by the airline. They were all retired from active service between mid-February and April 4, 2020, and have since been stored at Roswell airport. According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, American's last A330-200 revenue flight was AA1869 from Philadelphia Int'l to Charlotte Int'l, operated on April 4, 2020, with N280AY (msn 1022).

American Airlines recorded a USD709 million non-cash write-down during the third quarter of 2020 as a result of the A330-200s' retirement.

The carrier has previously announced the retirement of all of its B757, B767, E190, A330-300, and CRJ200 aircraft, amounting to more than 150 units phased-out during 2020. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the carrier's remaining mainline fleet comprises 133 A319-100s, forty-eight A320-200s, 218 A321-200s, twenty-three A321-200NXs, 304 B737-800s, forty-seven B777-200(ER)s, twenty B777-300(ER)s, twenty-three B787-8s, and twenty-two B787-9s.

American Airlines also has twenty-four grounded B737-8s and a further 76 of the type on order from Boeing. It said that the deliveries of the forthcoming units could be deferred.

"We have reached an agreement with Boeing to secure deferral rights on eight of our 2021 MAX deliveries and all 10 of our MAX deliveries in 2022. If the deferral rates are ultimately exercised, these aircraft can be deferred to the second half of 2023 through the first quarter of 2024. To avoid exercising these deferral rates, we would need to see substantial improvement in the demand environment," Kerr said.

The airline still has ten B737 MAX 8s scheduled to deliver in 2021, excluding those subject to potential deferrals.

"We retain inexpensive optionality in our total fleet count as we have 51 aircraft with lease expirations through the end of 2022. In addition, we have more than 200 older owned mainline and regional aircraft that could be efficiently part should demand conditions deteriorate," Kerr added.

American Airlines also said that it had amended its loan agreement with the US Treasury, potentially increasing the amount of borrowing available to it from USD5.5 billion to USD7.5 billion. It underlined that so far, it has only drawn USD550 million under the facility.

Airbus Updates No.2779

American Airlines A321 Loses Wing Part

An American Airlines flight landing in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been temporarily taken out of service after an inspection revealed that a rivet was missing from one of the wing slats. The Airbus A321-200 completed its flight on August 10th without incident, and the missing part was only discovered after it landed. The plane was taken out of service and remained grounded for over 12 hours after the discovery.

An American Airlines A321 aircraft was found to have a missing screw in a post-flight inspection. Photo: Airbus

Missing screw or missing slat?

The American Airlines flight AA-1642 from Detroit, Michigan, to Charlotte, North Carolina, landed safely after 85 minutes in the air. The plane landed just 15 minutes behind schedule and did not report any incident while in the air. However, upon a post-flight inspection, the Airbus A321-200, registration N198UW, was found to have a rivet missing from a wing slat.

The aircraft in question was taken out of service, although supposedly for an unrelated issue. The Aviation Herald is reporting that a source confirmed that rather than a screw missing, the entire slat had gone. However, an American Airlines representative confirmed to Simple Flying that “It was one small rivet that was missing. Early reports were false.” The representative also confirmed that the aircraft is now back in service.

A321 wing slats

Slats are extendable and retractable devices fitted to the leading edge of aircraft wings. The slats are designed to give an extra lift to an aircraft during low-speed maneuvers such as takeoff, approach, and landing. The slats are deployed hydraulically or using electrical switches.

The Airbus A321 aircraft has five slats on each wing. While it may not seem too severe for a screw to be loose, or indeed for one of five slats to be missing, the slats help pilots control the aircraft when landing. A slat in the wrong place changes the flow of air over the wing resulting in an imbalance and can cause serious problems with the landing procedure. Luckily, the American Airlines flight landed safely.

Airbus Updates No.2757

American Airlines To Scrap Airbus A321 Involved In Take-Off Wing Strike

An American Airlines A321 that was involved in a take-off wing strike in April 2019 will not return to service. The decision comes 15 months after the incident. During that time, the plane has sat idle at New York’s Kennedy Airport. It is another chapter in an underreported incident that came dangerously close to a disaster.

American Airlines N114NN will get scrapped following an incident in April 2019. Photo: Anna Zvereva via Wikimedia Commons

The incident occurred on April 10, 2019. The leased Airbus A321 is registered as N114NN and has been with American Airlines for six-plus years. On the evening of April 10, N114NN was to operate AA300 from New York’s Kennedy Airport across to Los Angeles.

Aircraft experiences an uncontrolled roll, clips sign and pole

As Simple Flying reported, the aircraft experienced an uncontrolled 45° roll when taking off. The plane’s wing clipped a sign and a pole on the ground. The aircraft took off and climbed without further incident. N114NN ascended to 20,000 feet before turning and making a safe landing back at Kennedy.

“There’s a good crosswind, but we had an uncommanded roll to the left as we rotated,” the pilot told ATC.

“We were banking, uncontrolled bank 45 degrees to the left.”

Back on the ground, the extent of the damage became clear, and N114NN has not flown since.

A clipped sign, but could have got a lot worse

The incident and eventual fate of N114NN may prove to be one of history’s more expensive sideswipes of a sign.

Despite the aircraft remaining in the air for 30 minutes and landing safely, there are some reports that the April 10 incident could have ended very badly.

There were 110 people on board the flight. One unnamed source who was “briefed on the incident,” told CBS News;

“That was as close as anybody would ever want to come to crashing.” 

The uncommanded roll occurred just as the Airbus was starting to take-off. As CBS News notes, the force of the impact bent the wing.

There is a suggestion the pilots didn’t anticipate the severity of the winds and did not deflect or apply enough rudder to keep the aircraft centered.

The National Safety and Transportation Bureau (NTSB) is formally investigating the incident. American Airlines is co-operating fully in addition to conducting its own investigation. Neither AA nor the NTSB have published their findings on the incident. When they do, it should make for some interesting reading.

Airbus Updates No.2278

American Airlines eyes second-hand Airbus A319s

American Airlines Airbus A319-100 © American Airlines

30.09.2019 - 21:39 UTC

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) is planning to add second-hand A319-100s to increase its small narrowbody fleet rather than ordering new aircraft in the near future, Vice-President (Planning) Vasu Raja told employees in an internal newsletter.

"We are the largest operator of the A319 in the world. As there are more and more of this kind of planes [i.e. small narrowbodies] that come online it effectively lowers the market value of the A319s at a time when so many A319s are aging out of their initial lease terms... That creates a unique opportunity for us where our decision isn’t necessarily to go buy a brand new small narrowbody, we can still be players in the used narrowbody space," Raja said in the letter, as quoted by an aviation blog View from the Wing.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, American Airlines currently operates 133 A319-100s. The aircraft are 15.5 years old on average, although their individual age ranges from 4.3 to 21 years. American Airlines' A319s are equipped with 128 passenger seats. As such, the Airbus jets are in the same market segment as A220s, which the carrier has, for now, shunned.

"We are looking at being able to fly all of our aircraft a lot longer, because that’s a really wise capital thing to do, but we’re also being very opportunistic about how we think about that small narrowbody fleet in the future," Raja added.

Airbus Updates No.2178

American Airlines mulls A321neo(XLR) to replace B757s

American Airlines Airbus A321-200NX © Airbus

13.06.2019 - 10:19 UTC

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) is in talks with Airbus about the proposed and tentative extra long-range version of the A321-200neo. Bloomberg has reported that the US carrier mulls the type as a replacement for its B757-200s.

The talks are reportedly at an early stage and no announcement is expected imminently.

ch-aviation understands from industry sources that Airbus may formally announce the launch of the A321neo(XLR) during the upcoming 2019 Paris Air Show in the second half of June. The type could offer up to 900 nautical miles extra range in comparison to the in-production A321neo(LR).

The deliveries of the A321neo(LR)s started in November 2018. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, there are currently five active units of the type globally - two operating for Arkia Israeli Airlines and one each for Air Transat, TAP Air Portugal, and La Compagnie.

American Airlines has thirty-four B757-200s. The average age of the aircraft is 19.6 years. The carrier owns all of the aircraft. The B757s are deployed predominantly on US domestic transcontinental services, as well as to the Caribbean, Hawaii, Latin America, and to select destinations in Europe (Reykjavik Keflavik, Shannon, and Edinburgh).

The 2011 American Airlines order for 130 A321-200neo (later downgraded to 100) has been widely seen as a factor that pushed Boeing to develop the B737 MAX.

The US carrier's narrowbody fleet currently includes 131 A319-100s, forty-eight A320-200s, 219 A321-200s, three A321neo, twenty-four grounded B737-8s, and 304 B737-800s. American Airlines also has outstanding orders for 97 more A321neo and seventy-six B737 MAX 8s.

Airbus Updates No.2141

AA pushes back A321neo deliveries due to Airbus delays

American Airlines Airbus A321-200NX © Airbus

02.05.2019 - 22:01 UTC

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has pushed back deliveries of five A321-200neo originally due to join the carrier's fleet this year to 2020 due to the delays at the manufacturer, Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said during the quarterly earnings call.

As it stands, the carrier plans to take twelve A321neo in 2019 (including two that have already been delivered) and a further twenty in 2020. In total, it had 100 on order from Airbus of which ninety-eight still await deliveries.

American Airlines launched A321neo operations in early April 2019. For the entire month of April, it deployed the first aircraft, N400AN (msn 8647) exclusively between Orlando Int'l and Phoenix Sky Harbor, although in early May it also started using it on other routes. The second unit, N401AN (msn 8701) entered revenue service in late April and is based out of Phoenix.

The carrier has temporarily grounded fourteen B737-800s "for remediation work following the installation of new aircraft interiors". It was also affected by the grounding of the B737-8 type as it operated twenty-four such aircraft. As a result of all these developments, AA's capacity growth will slow down by 0.5 percentage points to 2.5% in 2019.

Besides ten more A321neo, American Airlines also plans to take sixteen B737 MAX 8s, eleven CRJ-900s, and thirteen E175s in 2019.

Airbus Updates No.1920

American Airlines defers A321neo orders

American Airlines A321-200 © American Airlines

21 hours ago

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) says it has reached an agreement with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) to defer twenty-two A321neo that were previously scheduled for delivery in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The carrier said in its 2Q18 filings that these aircraft are now scheduled to be delivered in 2024. However, its first A321neo of 100 on order is still on track to arrive in early 2019. The changes are expected to reduce the airline's planned capital expenditure by approximately USD1.2 billion over the next three years.

American's Chief Financial Officer, Derek Kerr, said during an earnings call that the decision to defer the jets would allow the carrier to tap added benefits from its Project Oasis, a plan to outfit new cabins on about 250 B737-800s and 200 A321-200s. Among the plan's more important points are that the B737-800s will feature 172 seats (up from 160), equal to their incoming B737 MAX 8s, while the A321-200s will be densified to seat 190, equal to the A321neo.

"We have the capacity already," Kerr said. "We have aircraft that we can keep around, we're putting B737s through the Oasis Project [sic] and modifying those aircraft, so there really wasn't the need to take on new aircraft at this point in time, which enabled us to push them [the A321neo] out till 2024."

"You don't want to replace aircraft too early when other aircraft are fine and can be flown in the markets that we have. So, that was just more of a decision from a CapEx standpoint to push those out."

These revisions included, American said it expects to add seventeen A320neo Family jets in 2019, 15 in 2020, 18 in 2021, 20 in 2022, and thirty in 2023 and beyond. By the end of next year, it is also expecting to retire its remaining McDonnell Douglas jets (nine MD-82s and thirty-three MD-83s)..

Airbus Updates No.1824

American Airlines defers three A321neo deliveries

American Airlines Airbus A321-200 © Oneworld

21 hours ago

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has deferred deliveries of three A321neo originally due to have arrived from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) from 2021. Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said in a recent earnings call the affected aircraft would now arrive in 2023.

American Airlines currently has 100 A321neo on order from the Europeans.

It is recalled that American has also deferred forty B737 MAX, previously scheduled to arrive between 2020 and 2022, to 2025 and 2026.

According to the carrier, these changes will better align aircraft deliveries with planned retirements and will reduce planned capital expenditures by approximately USD200 million in 2019 and USD800 million in 2020.