Airbus Updates No.4143

 

AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines adds wet-leased A320 capacity

AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines A320neo© AZAL

07.11.2023 - 06:33 UTC

AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines (J2, Baku Heydar Aliev International) has signed a wet-lease agreement with Lithuania’s GetJet Airlines (GW, Vilnius) for three Airbus A320 aircraft, which it will deploy for the duration of this winter season’s operations.

ch-aviation analysis of Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that the three GetJet A320-200s are already in or operating out of Baku Heydar Aliev International. Both LY-FAS (msn 4273) and LY-WIZ (msn 3430) were ferried there from Vilnius on October 31, and since then they have conducted flights between the Azeri capital and Antalya, Berlin Brandenburg International, Dubai International, Izmir Adnan Menderes, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen, Milan Malpensa, Prague Václav Havel, and Vienna.

The third twinjet, LY-GYM (msn 2584), was ferried to Baku on November 2 from Malta International, where it had been stored. GetJet’s Maltese affiliate, Airhub Airlines (RE, Malta International), which operates its own fleet of five aircraft under its local 9H registration, is an occasional ACMI customer of the Lithuanian ACMI/wet-lease specialist.

In a statement, AZAL said it planned to deploy the ACMI jets on the above routes as well as to Almaty and Astana “to meet the growing needs of passengers.” GetJet separately said in its own communiqué that the new contract ensures it keeps busy “a significant number of our Airbus A320 family units for the entire winter season, which usually brings seasonal challenges for ACMI providers.”

GetJet Airlines’ chief executive, Rūta Kulvinskaitė, told ch-aviation in an interview in September that its business “was built from day one to deal with seasonality. So we believe that the fleet and company size is optimal for seasonal changes - winter doesn’t come as a surprise for us as we built the company around that.”

The GetJet fleet currently consists of five A320-200s, one A321-200, and five B737-800s, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. Subsidiary GetJet Airlines Latvia (GJ, Riga) operates an additional A320-200, while Airhub Airlines operates another two A320s, one A330-200, one A330-300, and one A330-900. Customers at the moment include Air Sénégal, Air Serbia, Aruba Airlines, ASL Airlines France, Ibom Air, and Nesma Airlines.

AZAL meanwhile operates six of its own A320-200s amid a fleet of thirty-two Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer jets.

Airbus Updates No.4068

 

Lithuania's GetJet Airlines adds maiden A321

GetJet Airlines Airbus A321-200© GetJet Airlines

20.07.2023 - 08:45 UTC

GetJet Airlines (GW, Vilnius) took delivery of a first A321-200 on July 10, 2023, and pressed it into service on July 18, 2023.

LY-WSA (msn 2115) is a 19.6-year-old jet formerly operated by rival ACMI/charter specialist Avion Express Malta (X8, Malta International). It was ferried from Sofia to Riga on July 10 and, after re-registration, began operating with an ad-hoc ACMI rotation from Oslo Gardermoen to Palma de Mallorca on behalf of Sunclass Airlines (DK, Copenhagen Kastrup). It is configured for up to 220 passengers in a single-class layout.

"The diversity within our fleet, encompassing different aircraft types, along with our readiness to modify aircraft according to our clients' requests, enables us to uphold our promise of quality and flexibility. The addition of the Airbus A321 further expands our capacity and solidifies our dedication," Chief Executive Rūta Kulvinskaitė said.

GetJet's fleet also includes one A319-100, five A320-200s, and five B737-800s. GetJet Airlines Latvia (DML, Riga) operates an additional A320-200, while affiliate company Airhub Airlines (RE, Malta International) operates two A320-200s, one A330-200, two A330-300s, and one A330-900.

Airbus Updates No.3423

 Airhub Airlines adds 1st A340

Airhub Airlines has added its first A340 to the fleet. The aircraft, an A340-300 currently registered as F-WBTJ (668), was delivered on 16 June and will undergo last preparations at Siauliai in Lithuania. It will be registered as 9H-BOB and will be put into service before the end of next month. Previously this Airbus was in use with Air Tahiti Nui as F-OLOV. It was operated between 2005 and 2019, was in storage at Teruel between February 2019 and December 2020 and at Amman for heavy maintenance between December 2020 and June 2021.

Airhub Airlines is the Maltese subsidiary of GetJet Airlines and was launched in 2020. It also has a single A320 in the fleet. Three more A340s are to follow in the coming months, which the company will deploy on ACMI-charters as well as "phreighter"-flights.

Airbus Updates No.3100

 

FlyBosnia Hiring 30 Cabin Crew For Its New Airbus A320

FlyBosnia is hiring 30 cabin crew. The startup airline, based in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Sarajevo International Airport, is hoping to re-start flights this year using an Airbus A320 aircraft it is leasing from Onur Air of Turkey.

FlyBosnia is gearing up for a resumption of flight services this summer. Photo: N509FZ via Wikimedia

FlyBosnia set to return this year

FlyBosnia has advertised 30 job openings for cabin crew staff, all to be hired on a temporary basis. The airline is preparing to re-start operations this summer, following a break of more than a year. The last scheduled flight that FlyBosnia operated was in March 2020. It is currently a virtual airline with no aircraft at all.

The Sarajevo-based airline has reportedly signed contracts with Fibula and Centrotours, two major tourist agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. FlyBosnia will operate flights to Turkey for these companies this summer. Several sources also report that it will be flying to Egypt too.

Last summer, the airline operated chartered passenger and cargo flights from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Montenegro, to Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China. In the late spring months of May and June, as Simple Flying reported at the time, FlyBosnia operated several flights to Beijing (PEK) and Tianjin (TSN).

Because Sarajevo is much farther away from China than FlyBosnia’s A319 could reach, the airline made stops in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Airport (KGF) along the way.

FlyBosnia has no aircraft right now

When travel restrictions were erected in Europe in March 2020, FlyBosnia responded with some fairly robust cost-cutting measures. It halted all scheduled commercial flights straight away, and it has still not resumed any of these. On 28th August 2020, it returned its sole remaining aircraft, an Airbus A319, and it has been a virtual airline ever since.

During the summer of 2020, when travel restrictions were relaxed for a brief period of time, FlyBosnia wet-leased an Airbus A320 aircraft from Lithuania’s GetJet Airlines. It used this aircraft to operate charter flights to Antalya (AYT), Jeddah (JED), Chisinau (KIV), and Riyadh (RUH).

An A320 is coming from Onur Air

To operate its charter flights, FlyBosnia will receive an Airbus A320 aircraft that has already been painted in the airline’s livery and is currently in Istanbul. The aircraft performed a test flight above Turkey two weeks ago, and it is expected to arrive in Bosnia and Herzegovina in April.

The aircraft will be leased to FlyBosnia by Onur Air. The Turkish airline has had the A320 since 2012. Previously, the aircraft was also with Aero Lloyd, a German charter airline, America West Airlines and US Airways of the US, and Russia’s Avianova. The aircraft is almost 25 years old.

The news of FlyBosnia resuming services is the strongest possible indication yet that the airline has resolved its dispute with its base airport, Sarajevo. But neither party has yet confirmed this.

Airbus Updates No.1801

Lithuania's GetJet Airlines secures one A320 from AerCap

GetJet Airlines Airbus A320-200© GetJet Airlines

27MAR2018

GetJet Airlines (GJT, Vilnius) has secured an A320-200 from AerCap following the signing of a contract in August last year.

The Lithuanian ACMI/charter specialist said in a statement LY-FOX (msn 1087) was delivered on March 20 and features 180 seats in an all-economy class configuration. It will be used to ACMI/wet lease and air charter contracts across Europe. 

"GetJet has been growing steadily for the last couple of years and so adding the new Airbus A320 to our fleet is simply part of our long-term modernization and expansion strategy,” Darius Viltrakis, CEO of GetJet Airlines, said.

GetJet Airlines also operates one more A320-200 as well as four B737-400s and one B737-300.

Airbus Updates No.1798

Finnair to damp-lease a Lithuanian A320 from late 2Q18

GetJet Airlines Airbus A320-200© GetJet Airlines

16MAR2018

Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) has announced it will damp-lease an A320-200 from Lithuanian ACMI/specialist GetJet Airlines (GJT, Vilnius) to cover demand over the period running from June 8, 2017, through January 7, 2019.

The Finnish carrier said in a statement the A320 would be deployed on select rotations from Helsinki Vantaa to each of Budapest, Berlin Tegel, Vienna, Prague, Kraków, and Paphos.

"We have a record number of flights next summer to both Asia and Europe. The leased aircraft will for its part ensure that we are able to operate all the flights in our traffic plan,” Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair, has added.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Finnair's own in-house A320 Family fleet currently numbers ten A320-200s, eight A319-100s, and eighteen A321-200s.