Airbus Updates No.3107

 

Airbus A319	-112	1102		LY-TKT	Avion Express	delivery 23mar21 LDE-KUN	ex OE-ISI
Airbus A319	-115	10110		B-320G	Tibet Airlines	delivery 19-20mar21 XFW-NQZ-CTU	ex D-AVWE
Airbus A320	-233	1500		N117GL	Genesis Lease	ferried 12mar21 UIO-TUS, HC-reg	ex HC-CPB
Airbus A320	-232	1895		VP-CMS	Sky One FZE	ferried 17mar21 EGBP-CAI	ex A7-ADD
Airbus A320	-232	2157		LY-FJI	Heston Airlines	at VNO 18mar21 in full cs prior svc entry	ex ES-LAA
Airbus A320	-214	2658		EC-MBK	Volotea	delivery 19mar21 OSR-VCE	ex OE-ILU**
Airbus A320	-214	3596		VQ-BZH	?	ferried 18mar21 CTU-ISB	ex B-6395
Airbus A320	-214	3711		VP-BMF	Ural Airlines	acc flt at OSR 13mar21, all white prior paint & delivery	ex F-WWIV
Airbus A320	-214	3931		HK-5223	Viva Air Colombia	ferried 20-22mar21 BOG-FOR-TFS-PMI-TLL, for Volotea	ex LZ-AWJ
Airbus A320	-232	4628		OE-ITT	Zephyrus Aviation Capital	regd 19mar21, ferried 20mar21 BUD-QLA, all white	ex HA-LWI
Airbus A320	-232	8311		G-WUKD	Wizz Air UK	ferried 19mar21 STN-CWL for interuim storage	ex D-AXAG
Airbus A320	-251N	10355		VT-TQD	Vistara Airlines	delivery 22mar21 TLS-DEL	ex F-WWBH
Airbus A320	-271N	10360		D-AIJE	Lufthansa	delivery 18mar21 XFW-BER	ex F-WWBU
Airbus A320	-251N	10404		TC-NCU	Pegasus Airlines	delivery 19mar21 TLS-SAW "Sedanur"	ex F-WWBP
Airbus A320	-251N	10510		N379FR	Frontier Airlines	delivery 23mar21 BFM-TPA	ex F-WZMM
Airbus A321	-231	6201		RP-C9910	Philippine Airlines	ferried 19-20mar21 MNL-UUS-ANC-GYR on retun to lessor, reg N425AC reserved	ex D-AZAM
Airbus A321	-211	10003		N108DN	Delta Air Lines	delivery 18mar21 XFW-KEF-YYZ-SAL	ex D-AVZQ
Airbus A321	-251NX	10071		EC-NJI	Iberia Express	delivery 19mar21 XFW-MAD	ex D-AZAP
Airbus A321	-251NX	10150		G-XATW	Titan Airways	ferried 19mar21 NWI-STN after paint into United Kingdom VIP cs alike RAF A332 ZZ336	ex D-AZAT
Airbus A321	-271NXLR	10210		XA-VBK	VivaAerobus	delivery 19-20mar21 XFW-KEF-BGR-MTY	ex D-AYAG

credit : Skyliner Aviation

Airbus Updates No.3106

 

Lithuania's Heston Airlines adds first A320

Illustration of Heston Airlines Airbus A320-200© Heston Airlines

22.03.2021 - 07:07 UTC

Heston Airlines (HST, Vilnius) has taken delivery of its first aircraft, A320-200 LY-FJI (msn 2157), as it inches towards its planned April launch.

The 17.2-year-old Airbus narrowbody, previously operated by Estonia's Airest (AEG, Tallinn Lennart Meri), was ferried to Vilnius on November 17, 2020, and has since been under maintenance at the Lithuanian airport. Heston Airlines said it was registered in Lithuania on March 17, 2021.

The aircraft is owned by CRA Aircraft Ireland and managed by Seraph Aviation Management, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows.

The carrier plans to add two more A320s shortly. Chief Executive Jonas Rinkauskas confirmed to ch-aviation they will be LY-VUT (msn 3275), a 13.5-year-old ex-Tigerair Australia jet which is owned by Genesis Aircraft Services and managed by Seraph Aviation Management, and LY-NZL, whose identity remains undisclosed due to ongoing talks with lessors. Previously, the carrier indicated it would add msn 2112 but that is no longer planned. LY-VUT is expected to deliver on April 15, 2021.

The start-up's parent, Heston Aviation, is working together with lessor Genesis Aircraft Services to establish the airline as an all-A320 Family charter and ACMI specialist.

Heston Airlines has yet to obtain its AOC.

Airbus Updates No.3105

 

SriLankan Airlines sues Airbus for $1bn

SriLankan Airlines Airbus A321-200N© SriLankan Airlines

23.03.2021 - 07:00 UTC

SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo Int'l) has filed a lawsuit against Airbus for alleged corruption during the procurement of A350-900s and is seeking USD1 billion in damages and compensation, the cancellation of the outstanding order for four aircraft, and the return of USD19 million in pre-delivery payments for these aircraft, DailyFT has reported.

The lawsuit follows the Deferred Prosecution Agreement between the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the manufacturer announced in January 2020.

Chairman Ashok Pathirage confirmed the airline had filed the lawsuit, although he did not elaborate in which jurisdiction it was done. SriLankan did not respond to ch-aviation's request for further details.

The alleged corruption in Sri Lanka was one of five counts raised by the SFO during its investigation. According to the allegations summarised in the judgement approving the DPA, Airbus failed to prevent graft and bribery during the sale of its aircraft to SriLankan Airlines. In particular, it allegedly offered USD16.84 million in bribes to an intermediary Brunei-based straw company to secure contracts for the sale of six A330-300s and four A350-900s, and the lease of a further four A350-900s from ILFC (three) and AerCap (one). Of the proposed bribe, only USD2 million was paid.

The other four counts raised by the SFO concerned alleged bribery practices in Malaysia (AirAsia Group deals), Taiwan (TransAsia Airways), Indonesia (Garuda Indonesia Group), and Ghana (a governmental procurement).

Under the DPA, Airbus agreed to pay EUR984 million euro (USD1.17 billion) in the United Kingdom. Including similar agreements in France and the United States, the European manufacturer's overall bill reached EUR3.6 billion (USD4.3 billion).

While SriLankan Airlines took delivery of the A330s, it has been trying to extricate itself from the A350 deal since 2015, just two years after the Sri Lankan national carrier placed the order. It cancelled the four lease commitments between 2015 and 2017, agreeing to pay a USD98 million penalty and leasing in an A330-200 in an unsuitable configuration instead. The settlement reportedly also included increases in other lease rates. Despite the carrier's attempts to convert the other four A350s to A330neo, the order remains formally binding.

The Sri Lankan office of the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International welcomed the carrier's decision to sue Airbus and seek damages.

Airbus Updates No.3104

 

Jetstar moves A320s to Australia from Japan, Singapore

Jetstar Airways Airbus A320-200© Tis Meyer / PlanePics.org

18.03.2021 - 17:18 UTC

Qantas Group is planning to temporarily transfer up to ten A320-200s from its foreign joint ventures to its Australian fleet as the country's domestic market is able to support more capacity than other countries at this time, Chief Executive of low-cost unit Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) Gareth Evans said during a CAPA Live event.

"We’re looking to bring six of the Jetstar Japan (GK, Tokyo Narita) aircraft down to Australia for a temporary period, not permanently but for two to three years perhaps to provide some capacity for growth to Jetstar domestically and potentially to leverage into Western Australia as well," Evans said.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Jetstar Japan currently operates twenty-five Airbus narrowbodies, including twenty-four A320-200s and a single A321-200NX. The single A321neo was contractually delivered to the airline in December 2020 but remains in storage at Erfurt airport and was never ferried to Japan.

The A320s are 7.4 years old on average and are all dry-leased from a variety of lessors. Six aircraft are owned by Tokyo Century, which has a 16.7% stake in Jetstar Japan. The other shareholders of Jetstar Japan are JAL Group with a 50% stake and Qantas Group with a 33.3% stake.

Evans underlined that Jetstar remained committed to its Japanese joint venture but stressed that the Japanese domestic market was rebounding much more slowly than the Australian one. As such, the group could use the aircraft more efficiently in its home market for the time being.

The carrier told ch-aviation that the aircraft would first be ferried to Alice Springs before joining Jestar Airways' fleet. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that JA06JJ (msn 5281), JA12JJ (msn 5618), and JA18JJ (msn 5796) are currently parked at the Australian airport.

The six A320s due to be transferred from Jetstar Japan will join four aircraft moved from Jetstar Asia Airways (3K, Singapore Changi) to Australia. In mid-2020, the Singaporean LCC, which does not have a domestic market and relies exclusively on heavily curtailed international routes, announced that it would retire five out of its then eighteen A320-200s. Since then, three aircraft have been transferred to Qantas Group's regional carrier Network Aviation (NWK, Perth Int'l) and operate routes out of Perth Int'l under the QantasLink brand.

Both Jetstar and Jetstar Asia confirmed that the three A320s transferred to Network Aviation were a part of the transaction described by Evans. The identity of the fourth aircraft to be moved to Australia remains unclear.

The group sees significant potential in the Australian domestic market, which is poised to return to its pre-pandemic size, and may even exceed it, relatively quickly. The carrier is already back to 90% of its pre-COVID domestic capacity in Australia and 80% in New Zealand. Evans said the closure of rival LCC Tigerair Australia opened new market opportunities. The airline has not been deterred by the entry of Rex - Regional Express into the mainline market.

"We’re not going to overheat the market, but we’ve got a right to grow and we’re going to do that flexibly using aircraft from elsewhere within our group," Evans said.

Jetstar Airways plans to add its first A321-200NX(LR)s in 2022 or 2023. The aircraft will be used on medium-haul routes served before the pandemic by the carrier's B787-8s, including routes to Denpasar. The carrier has a total of twenty-seven A321-200NX(LR)s on order from Airbus, as well as thirty-six A321-200NX(XLR)s and forty-five A320-200Ns. Its current fleet comprises fifty A320-200s, eight A321-200s, and eleven B787-8s.

Evans said the group remained committed to adding some A321-200NX(LR)s to its Japanese unit, although the timing was still unclear at this point.

Airbus Updates No.3103

 

Viva Aerobus A320 Evacuated After Possible Gear Failure 

A Viva Aerobus Airbus A320 lost its front landing gear today while departing from Puerto Vallarta, en route to Monterrey, in Mexico. The 127 people onboard exited the aircraft safely, and currently, Puerto Vallarta’s airport is closed due to the incident. What happened?

An Airbus A320 of Viva Aerobus lost its landing gear while departing from Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. There are no injuries. Photo: Getty Images

What happened?

Today, at approximately 13:40 local time, an Airbus A320, registration XA-VAZ, suffered an incident while departing from Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. The airline immediately activated all safety protocols, and no one was injured, according to Viva Aerobus in a statement sent to Simple Flying.

Reporting from the airline states it is currently rescheduling all the passengers that were onboard flight VIV4343. They were traveling to the Mexican city of Monterrey.

According to JacDec News, the aircraft suffered the incident while lined up to depart from runway 22. Currently, Viva Aerobus is doing a maintenance check on XA-VAZ while the Puerto Vallarta airport remains closed.

XA-VAZ had its last flight earlier today, between Monterrey and Puerto Vallarta, according to RadarBox.com. The aircraft is 15 years old and arrived with Viva Aerobus back in 2016. Previously, it flew with Kingfisher Airlines, ZestAir, and AirAsia Zest, according to airfleets.es.

As of February 2021, XA-VAZ was averaging 4.8 flight hours per day and operated 40 flights in the month, according to stats provided by RadarBox.com. The aircraft has mainly operated out of Monterrey and Mexico City, the two main hubs of Viva.

Viva Aerobus’s first landing gear failure

This was the first time Viva Aerobus suffered a landing gear failure in its history, according to AeroInside. The Mexican low-cost carrier has had a few engine shutdowns, including one that happened on November 16, 2020, while flying from Monterrey to Cancun.

You can also see a video of today’s incident in a Facebook video posted a few hours ago.

Viva Aerobus has one of the youngest fleets in all Latin America, and it is all Airbus A320 family-based. As of December 31, Viva Aerobus had a fleet of 43 aircraft, with an average age of 4.4 years.

It had 20 Airbus A320ceo (like the one in this incident), 20 Airbus A320neo, and three Airbus A321neo. The Mexican airline is currently in growth mode and expects to receive five more A321neo in 2021. Viva Aerobus expects to have a fleet of 80 aircraft by 2026.

Viva Aerobus currently has a fleet of 43 aircraft. Photo: Getty Images

What’s been happening lately with Viva Aerobus?

Viva Aerobus and its low-cost competitor Volaris had a V-shaped recovery during 2020’s last two quarters. By November, Viva Aerobus was already operating a full schedule, compared to the previous year, the first airline in the Americas to do it.

Nevertheless, the airline still had a net loss due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viva Aerobus had a net loss of 2.7 billion pesos in 2020 (nearly US$133 million). The carrier suffered a 36.1% decrease in its revenues, while the expenses only decreased by 19.2%.

Moreover, in 2021’s first quarter, Viva Aerobus has had to adjust its capacity. In February, the number of passengers it carried fell down to the same levels it had in August. This is partially explained due to the low-season in Mexico, which is between January and March.

Airbus Updates No.3102

Iberia Celebrates 40 Years Of Airbus Operations

Today marks four decades since the Spanish flag carrier Iberia began to operate Airbus aircraft. Exactly 40 years ago, the airline’s first Airbus A300 arrived in Madrid. As they say, the rest is history, with the airline having operated aircraft from the Airbus family ever since, currently running an all-Airbus fleet.

40 years ago, Iberia’s first Airbus aircraft arrived in Madrid for the first time. Photo: Iberia

In 2016 Boeing celebrated 100 years of building aircraft. This was followed by Airbus’ 50th anniversary three years later. Most of the time that Airbus has been producing aircraft, Iberia has been a customer of the airline. This is set to continue, with the airline operating the European manufacturer’s latest aircraft.

It started with an Airbus A300

The Iberia Airbus relationship started back in 1981. On March 18th, the Spanish flag carrier christened its first Airbus A300. The aircraft was named Doñana and was registered as EC-DLE. According to Planespotters.net, the aircraft took its first flight on January 13th, of that year, before being delivered to the airline on January 27th. Its first flight was to Paris’ Orly Airport on March 29th.

Doñana only ever flew for Iberia, lasing just 12 years before the airline withdrew it from service in January 1993. At the age of 19, the aircraft was scrapped in Madrid in the year 2000. In total, the airline operated nine A300s, eight of which it owned. The last was leased from TransAer International Airlines.

Iberia retired its remaining Airbus A340 aircraft as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying

Most of the Airbus family operated

Iberia has operated at least one aircraft from most of the Airbus aircraft families. The airline didn’t operate the A310 or A380. However, the Spanish flag carrier has flown the,

• Airbus A319
• Airbus A320
• Airbus A320neo
• Airbus A321-200
• Airbus A330-200
• Airbus A330-300
• Airbus A340-300
• Airbus A340-600
• Airbus A350-900

According to Planespotters.net, Iberia has operated Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft before, with almost 400 aircraft having been in the fleet at some point. However, today the airline only operates Airbus aircraft with 69 current aircraft, according to the publication. The airline retired its remaining Airbus A340 aircraft due to the pandemic, meaning that its average fleet age currently sits at under ten years old.

What’s next for Iberia?

The Spanish airline is maintaining its all-Airbus philosophy moving into the future as things currently stand. The airline is already operating the manufacturer’s latest-generation jets, the Airbus A320neo and A350.

However, the Spanish carrier will also be one of the launch customers for the Airbus A321XLR, with deliveries starting in 2023. The aircraft will be Iberia’s first narrowbody that can fly beyond the east coast of North America. The airline intends to use the aircraft to expand into new transatlantic destinations while also increasing frequencies in key markets.

 

Airbus Updates No.3101

 

17 LATAM Aircraft To Be Auctioned Including 2 A350s

SkyWorks Leasing is auctioning 17 former LATAM Airlines Group airplanes after the South American carrier rejected its leases last year due to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the US. The auction will take place on April 14, said the lessor.

SkyWorks lease will auction 17 former LATAM aircraft, including this Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Which aircraft are on auction?

LATAM Airlines Group is currently under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. As part of this reorganization, the airline has rejected several leasing contracts, reducing its fleet size. LATAM expects to shrink even further in 2021. The carrier said,

“Given the filing for voluntary reorganization and restructuring of their debt under Chapter 11 protection in the United States, LATAM is currently evaluating the adequate fleet needs for the following years.”

At the end of 2019, LATAM had a total fleet of 354 aircraft, including subleases. By the end of 2020, the airline had reduced this to 300 planes.

Now, SkyWorks Leasing is auctioning two Airbus A350-900s, four Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, and 11 A321-200s, as reported by FlightGlobal.

The six widebodies are off-lease, while the eleven narrowbodies are committed to long-term leases, beginning in 2021’s second quarter, said the lessor.

These are the former registrations of the six widebody aircraft:

1. The Airbus A350-900: PR-XTA and PR-XTB
2. Boeing 787-9: CC-BGE, CC-BGF, CC-BGG, and CC-BGH

What’s the importance of the two A350-900?

The two A350-900 were built in 2015 and 2016. Both aircraft are currently parked at Victorville, California. They both have Trent XWB-84 engines. Their cabin configuration was of 30 business and 309 economy seats and were listed last year on MyAirTrade.

PR-XTA was the first A350 to ever fly in South America. LATAM wrote on its nose “Primeriro A350 WXB das Américas”.

Meanwhile, PR-XTB had its last flight eight months ago, according to RadarBox.com. It flew from Sao Paulo to Victorville.

And, what about the Dreamliners? The four Dreamliners operated with LAN Chile. All of them are five years old. They were ferried from Santiago de Chile to Victorville between July and August 2020.

What about the narrowbodies?

As stated by SkyWorks, the eleven narrowbodies are still under a long-term lease. The local media outlet, Aviacionline, stated that the Bankruptcy Court in the US still has to decide the future of these aircraft.

In July last year, LATAM announced it planned to reject the leasing contracts of 19 aircraft. All these planes were narrowbodies, A319-100 and A320-200.

Nevertheless, since the announcement was made, LATAM still has to actually offload the 19 planes.

Between 2020’s third and fourth quarter, LATAM eliminated two A319-100, three A320-200, one A320neo, and 11 B767-300.

LATAM is reducing its fleet. It went from having 354 aircraft in 2019 to 300 in 2020. Photo: Tom Boon via Simple Flying

A brief update on LATAM

In 2020, LATAM Airlines Group posted a net loss of US$4.54 billion due to the impact of COVID-19. Passenger revenues decreased 70%, while cargo revenues surge 13.7%.

The airline lost 61.9% of its traffic compared to the previous year. It carried 28.29 million passengers in 2020 versus 74.18 million in 2019.

Unfortunately, 2021’s first quarter hasn’t been much better for the airline. LATAM is operating at one-third of the capacity it had in 2019.

In March, LATAM is operating approximately 675 daily flights to 115 destinations in 16 countries but can’t fly to many countries, like Portugal, due to travel restrictions.

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.