Commercial Aviation News

Pratt-run Airbus A321neo gets the nod from the FAA and EASA. The PW1100G has gained type certification to power the A321neo. Airbus says the aircraft had completed a certification programme accumulating over 350 flight hours across more than 130 flights, validating the airframe and systems "well beyond their design limits" to ensure the jet met all airworthiness criteria. The A321neo other engine option, the LEAP-1A by CFM International is expected to to be certified soon as well.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has taken delivery of its first A320neo. The Japanese carrier says that the Pratt & Whitney PW1127G-powered aircraft was handed over at Hamburg on 15 December. The A320 is configured with eight business class and 138 economy class seats. Six more A320neo and 26 A321neos are on order from ANA.

On the 22nd of December a bit of a milestone was met when Boeing delivered the 500th 787 Dream)Liner to a customer. The landmark aircraft went to Colombia's Avianca Airlines. It is a Boeing 787-8 variant and is powered by RR Trent 1000 powerplants with the registration of the aircraft being N793AV. Boeing delivered the first 787 to launch customer ANA (All Nippon Airways). Boeing is currently producing 12 Dream)Liner aircraft per month although they plan to raise the rate to 14 per month in the future.

GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) put in an order for another 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. If estimated at the current listing prices of Boeing's 737 MAX 8 aircraft, that order is in the region of $8.25 billion dollars. The order was actually made in December but only announced today to the public and will bring the lessor company's MAX orders to 170 units. This is now the third order for MAX 737 aircraft from GECAS and now brings the total MAX orders for Boeing to 3,419.

Boeing has fallen short of order commitment it made for 2016. They forecasted well over 700 orders but eventually rounded out the year with 668 orders. The company delivered 748 aircraft for 2016 meeting their forecast for 745 to 750 aircraft deliveries. 740 orders were announced to be attained by Boeing and they fell short in orders by about 72. At current list prices of the aircraft types they contracted, the 688 orders were worth just under 100 billion dollars.

Iran Air has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321. It is the first in an order that called for 100 units of the type to sustain their fleet renewal program. The aircraft is registered EP-IFA is powered by CFM International CFM56 engines and is one of 46 A320-family jets featured in the order. “Today, for civil aviation in Iran, is a memorable day,” said Iran Air chief executive Farhad Parvaresh at the handover event in Toulouse.

United is moving up the retirement timetable of their Boeing 747 quad-engined aircraft to the last quarter of 2017. This is nearly a year advancement of the timetable. Previous plans suggested axing the jumbojet by Q3 of 2018. United first introduced the Boeing 747 into its service in 1970 and to this date has 20 units currently in operation. Twin engine aircraft will now cover the routes the United 747s fly and in fact the Boeing 777-300ER has already been doing this. As time goes on, the 77W, A350-1000 and B787-10 are expected to fulfill many of these 747 routes for United.

Spice Jet, the Indian lowcost carrier revealed itself as the previous unidentified customer who purchased 13 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. They also committed to a firm purchase of 100 of the type. The purchase was announced today in New Delhi, India Boeing said in a statement. Additionally, SpiceJet has taken purchase rights for 50 additional aircraft, although they did not publicize the type. SpiceJet has quite a few Boeing aircraft on order and taking options and firm purchases into account, the company theoretically has 205 aircraft on order. Deliveries for the Spice Jet MAX 8s are expected to start in 2018 and run through 2024.

Wideroe pitches in with Embraer order.

Wideroe has operated turboprops all its existence and now have decided to step up to jet aircraft. They just pitched in an order for 15 Embraer E190-E2s with expected deliveries to commence in 2018. Three of those orders are firm purchases with rights to 12 units. When Wideroe attains the E190-E2s they will be configured in one-class with 114 seats.

The Mitsubishi MRJ is delayed once again, this time by 2 years. This would account for the fifth delay in handing over Japan's first locally made passenger jet to airlines. It also resulted in an approximate 30% hike in development costs. The launch customer ANA Holdings will now take delivery of their first MRJ jet in 2020. This is two years later than the present timeline, Mitsubishi said in Tokyo Monday. St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Inc. is the plane's biggest customer. Revision of some electrical configuration to meet certification requirements prompted the latest pushback of the deadline.

Flynas, Saudi Arabia’s leading low-cost carrier, has signed an agreement with Airbus for 60 A320neo Family aircraft. In addition to the 60 aircraft, Flynas has converted 20 A320ceo from a previous order to A320neo bringing the airline’s total firm order to 80 A320neo. The deliveries are scheduled to take place during 2018-2026. The agreement was announced today in Riyadh at a press conference attended by Ayed Al Jeaid, Chairman, NAS Holding, Bander Al Mohanna, Chief Executive Officer, NAS Holding Group and Fouad Attar, Managing Director, Airbus Middle East. Flynas, an all Airbus operator, currently has 26 A320ceo in service. Launched in 2007, the airline has successfully operated over 260,000 flights and carried more than 30 million passengers in the last ten years.

A growing success story: Airbus’ A350 XWB surpasses the six million-passenger mark in commercial operations.

Last May, Boeing raised the monthly production rate of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from 10 to 12 aircraft per month. Now the company wants to raise the per-month rate even higher...to 14 by the end of the decade. They have a number of motivating factors pinning this decision. With declining revenue from the 777 program and overheads from the 787 program, ramping up the rate is expected to provide some kind of an offset. At this point the 787 delivery rate is the fastest of any widebody aircraft.

The A320neo spat between Qatar Airways, Airbus and Pratt & Whitney has continued for so long that one of the initial airframes originally meant for Qatar Airways is now wearing IndiGO livery. You will remember Qatar Airways was supposed to have been the launch customer for the Airbus A320neo but issues with the aircraft's Pratt & Whitney PW1100G powerplants led to Qatar cancelling some of the orders for the type. There are a couple airframes wearing the Qatar Airways livery without engines mounted that have not left Airbus.

There is a tussle going on between Southwest Airlines and Norwegian for the launch customer title of the Boeing 737 MAX. Originally it appeared that Southwest Airlines would comfortably be the launch customer but it now appears that Norwegian could well take that title due to strategic planning on the part of Southwest. Southwest Airlines does not plan to fly the Boeing 737 MAX until October or before they are rid of their legacy 737 models/variants -like the -300 and -500 or older. Norwegian is eyeing May for first delivery so if Southwest still wants to be the launch customer they will have to change their integration plans. Norwegian wants to fly the 737MAX on transAtlantic routes in either June or July.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has confirmed it will order 20 B777-9s and 19 B787-10s. The order is now confirmed after an LOI was made and would cost SIA around 13.8 billion dollars. The order has purchase rights to 6 options in each model type if they wanted to exercise them. If the twelve optional aircraft are exercised in the future, the entire order will be for 51 aircraft from Boeing for SIA. SIA expects to take delivery of the Dream)Liner -10 in 2020 and the 777-9 in 2021. If anything arises SIA also has the option to switch the Dream)Liner -10 orders to any other model in the Dream)Liner series, i.e: -8 or -9s. Rolls Royce RR TRENT 1000s were chosen to power the Dream)liner -10s and the General Electric GE 9X will power the 777-9 since that's the only powerplant available for the 777X at this point.

Photo repaint by Agnott Deviantart

Yesterday Air Canada announced its rebranding of its fleet which will include the repainting of the mainline jets and Air Canada Express aircraft into what they are terming as a new livery but actually looks more like their older livery from the 90s. Three aircraft have already been repainted into the 'new scheme' and those are two Airbus A321s and a Boeing 787-8. The unveiling took place in three jurisdictions, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Repainting of Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 models are expected to be completed in 12 to 18 months while the other aircraft will timeline 3 to 4 years. Naturally new aircraft Air Canada has on order will come from the factory painted in the new scheme. The rebranding isn't simply about repainting aircraft, the company is also bringing new uniforms online for its flight attendants and upgrading food and beverage options for passengers as it seeks to become a global airline. For all those wondering, the company's low-cost subsidiary Rouge will not see repainting of its equipment. Just for general knowledge, Air Canada has 61 Boeing 737 MAX, 45 Bombardier CSeries CS300s and 14 Boeing 787-9 Dream)Liners on order at present.

Korean Air is taking delivery of several types of aircraft from different manufacturers this year. Nearly 20 commercial aircraft will be delivered to Korean Air in 2017. They expect to have seven (7) Bombardier CSeries CS300 single aisle aircraft. Additionally five (5) Boeing 787-9 Dream)Liners as well as three (3) Boeing 747-8i's.

CitiLink has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320neo making it the first of the type in the Indonesian region. The aircraft is registered PK-GTA and is powered by CFM International Leap-1A engines. It should be noted that the aircraft is not owned by CitiLink as it is a lease from lessor Avolon. Citilink is no stranger to Airbuses as it already operates 44 A320s. PK-GTA is the first of a package of 35 A320neo aircraft to be delivered to CitiLink. It is configured to 180 seats in a one-class arrangement. If you didn't know CitiLink is the subsidiary low-cost brand to the mainline Garuda Indonesia.

Norwegian Air Shuttle says it is looking to start its long talked about TransAtlantic services in June with the Boeing 737 MAX. The low-cost carrier's Irish subsidiary Norwegian Air International (NAI) will in June and July start flights from the three US cities to Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh and Shannon. It will operate 189-seat 737 Max 8 aircraft on the routes.