Cathay orders Airbus A320neo-family aircraft at Airbus
Just six days ago, on 4 August 2023, Scramble reported that the Cathay Group was close to seal a lease-deal for eighteen additional Airbus A321neos as part of its plan to expand its narrowbody-fleet with 50 aircraft. Now, we can report that the airline group has also secured the other 32 with an order for this number at Airbus directly.
The 32 A320neo-family aircraft will be delivered up to end 2029 and will go to either Cathay Pacific or HK Express. The Cathay Group has secured full flexibility to select an A320neo-family type when the production slot comes closer.
Bloomberg is reporting that the Cathay Group is close to finalizing a lease-agreement for additional Airbus A321neos. In March 2023, Scramble wrote that the group was looking into adding 50 narrowbody aircraft for its airlines. Ideally, these would be ordered directly with a manufacturer but to secure short-term capacity, a lease-agreement for part of this 50 would also be a possibility.
And now it seems the airline has secured the short-term addition of more A321neos. According to Bloomberg, the deal would be for eighteen aircraft, which are scheduled for delivery between 2025 and 2027. The exact split of aircraft per airline in the group wasn't mentioned.
Currently, the Cathay Group is operating a narrowbody fleet of two A320s, two A321s, and twelve A321neos at Cathay Pacific, and six A320s, ten A320neos, eleven A321s, and one A321neo at HK Express. The airline Group also has nineteen A321neos remaining
Two Airbus A321s Collide On The Ground In Hong Kong
Accidents happen in just about every field. Aviation is no outlier. While incidents remain pretty rare, things do happen while on the ground. In this case, two HK Express Airbus A321s collided on the ground at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). There were no reported injuries.
Two Airbus A321s for HK Express were involved in a ground collision. Photo: HK Express
The incident
A user posted on Twitter some pictures of two HK Express Airbus A321s that collided in Hong Kong.
It appears that one of the aircraft, in this case, B-LEF, was being pushed back when it made contact with the fuselage of the other A321, B-LEG, just above the cockpit. There were no reported injuries.
There will likely be an investigation into the incident. It is unclear exactly what happened, but the tug driver may have misjudged some distance, or there may have been other personnel such as ramp workers that had some role in it. Regardless, an investigation will only detail what went wrong.
As for the planes, HK Express will need to conduct some testing and repairs. It does not appear that there is much significant damage. For sure, there will be some cosmetic repairs necessary. Beyond that, the systems on both aircraft will likely be tested to look for any faults. Depending on the extent of the repairs, it may take a while for the planes to reenter service, or else they may be ready to fly soon.
Neither of the planes involved in the incident was carrying passengers. This is good for the airline since it reduces operational headaches of rescheduling customers and crew. Plus, with plenty of planes still parked, HK Express could always make moves to reactivate another jet in case these aircraft have to remain out of service for some time.
The two aircraft involved in the incident were B-LEG and B-LEF. Both of these planes are Airbus A321-200s that fly for HK Express. B-LEG is two years old, while B-LEF is slightly older at three years of age.
According to data from Flightradar24, B-LEG has not flown any commercial flights since March when it came in from Osaka. Flightradar24 also shows that B-LEF last flew in early March on the same Osaka to Hong Kong Leg just under a week after B-LEG. Both aircraft have remained parked since then, but have flown some flights in Hong Kong, likely for crew recency purposes.
The Airbus A321s have a total capacity of 230 passengers. As HK Express is a low-cost airline, all of its aircraft operate in a single-class economy configuration.
As a result of the ongoing crisis, HK Express suspended its passenger operations back in March. The original return plan kept getting pushed back as the crisis worsened. However, finally, in early August, HK Express started to resume some of its operations, although there is plenty of room for the carrier to grow back to what it was in 2019. The airline’s operations remain incredibly slim for now.
Cathay Pacific transfers 16 Airbus A321neo to its low-cost subsidiary HK Express
Hong Kong - Cathay Pacific allocates 16 aircraft to its subsidiary HK Express from an order of 32 Airbus A321neo.
With this move, Hong Kong's flag carrier wants to improve its share in the fast-growing low-cost market in the Asia-Pacific region. Cathay completed the acquisition of HK Express this year in July and paid HKD4.93 billion (USD628 million) for this takeover.
Cathay Pacific announced that its order for 32 Airbus A321neo jets will be distributed equally between its full-service subsidiary Cathay Dragon and budget operator HK Express.
The first 16 A321neo will be delivered to Cathay Dragon between 2020 and 2022. HK Express will take delivery of the remaining 16 aircraft from 2022.
HK Express is the fourth-largest airline in Hong Kong with a fleet of 24 A320 Family jets. It flies to 26 domestic and international destinations.
Cathay Dragon operates the second-largest airline of the city. It has a fleet of 48 aircraft and flies to 48 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region.
We will continue to invest in each of our airlines, their products, and services,” Tang said in a statement. “New aircraft are always the best platform to showcase our customer experience offerings,
said Augustus Tang Kin-wing, the CEO of the Cathay Pacific Group.
Cathay Pacific, The flag carrier order the Group, will receive Boeing’s 777X and 12 Airbus A350 planes by 2024 as it was previously planned.
The airline has been suffering from a sharp drop in demand for travel in and out of Hong Kong since the protests began against the local government and China in June.
Cathay is still committed to its long-term growth plans despite recent problems, and it fully expects passenger demand to rebound over the next five years,
Arctic Aviation Assets Ltd. (AAA), Norwegian’s wholly owned subsidiary, has signed an agreement to lease 12 Airbus A320neo to HK Express (Hong Kong). The 12 aircraft will be delivered between 2016 and 2018.
AAA (Norwegian) has 100 Airbus A320neo airliners on order.
Arctic Aviation Assets Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle and was established on August 9, 2013. The company is based in Ireland and currently manages a portfolio of 100 aircraft in addition to Norwegian’s orders for over 267 aircraft delivered during the period 2015 to 2022. The Company also has purchase options on another 160 aircraft.
Copyright Photo: Robbie Shaw/AirlinersGallery.com. HK Express currently operates a fleet of Airbus A320s with the current engines. A320-232 B-LCE (msn 2299) approaches the runway at the Hong Kong base and hub.
