Welcome to the second episode of our series covering recent fleet news! Based on the
positive feedback you provided on the first video, we’re going to keep going with this series once a
month. If you want to check out the other videos in this series, as well as our summaries on recent
incidents, you’ll find them in our playlist called “Simple Flying Summarizes,” which we’ll link to in
the description. With that out of the way, let’s see what’s happened recently with airline fleets…
On August 10th we saw SkyWest Airlines sign a deal with Embraer for 16 E175 jets. These will start
landing at the airline in mid-2022. At current list prices, the deal is worth $798.4 million,
and, while SkyWest operates regional services for United, Delta, American, and Alaska, these
16 Embraers will fly exclusively with Delta in Delta livery, under a capacity purchase agreement.
The next day we reported that Indian start-up Akasa Air, has been showing interest in ordering
up to 100 Boeing 737 MAXs. The airline is in negotiations with Boeing to secure the MAX for
its new narrowbody fleet. A source notes that the airline intends to start operation by early 2022.
With India’s recent re-certification of the type, this should provide much more
incentive for Akasa to follow through on its negotiations.
On August 13th we reported that Air Tanzania took delivery of the last DeHavilland Dash 8 Q400 to
be built for the foreseeable future. The Dash 8 program is currently indefinitely suspended
as the Canadian manufacturer has been suffering from low demand for the turboprop.
The aircraft was ferried to Tanzania in late July.
The next day British Airways retired the special Airbus A319 that flew the
Olympic Flame to the United Kingdom when London hosted the Olympic Games in 2012.
The 21-year-old aircraft wore a special livery at the time and was known as “the firefly.”
Registered G-EUPC, it departed London Heathrow for the last time, bound for St Athan near Cardiff,
where many BA jets have gone for their final flight over the years. The jet is the third of
44 Airbus A319s flown by British Airways, but is the 11th A319 to be retired by the airline.
Then, Helvetic Airways completed its fleet renewal project,
taking delivery of its final E195-E2 on August 15th. The airline is currently the
largest operator of Embraer E2s, with eight E190-E2s and four E195-E2s in its fleet.
Quite a few things have developed with the 737 MAX in recent weeks.
Russian low-cost airline Pobeda officially canceled its firm contracts for 20 Boeing 737 MAX
jets. The airline cited the lack of Russian recertification of the type as the main reason
for the cancelations. Furthermore, it stated it had incurred no penalties from Boeing as a result.
Across the Pacific, Alaska Airlines announced that it will convert 12 more
737 MAX 9 options into firm orders. These will be delivered in 2023 and 2024.
In the shorter term, we learned that some of Alaska’s 737 MAXs would come from Samoa Airways
and Sun Express Germany, neither of which wanted to follow through with their orders for the type.
Later in August we learned that Korean Air intends to retire the Airbus A380 within five
years. The plan affects Korean Air’s fleet of 10 in addition to the six from Asiana Airlines,
with which KoreanAir is merging.
The week after we found out that Qantas was recalling five A380s as soon as July 2022
which is incredibly exciting news.
At the same time, however, the airline confirmed two of their 12 A380s would
not return to service. CEO Alan Joyce calls the two aircraft quote “surplus to requirements.”
However, the airline says the remaining 10 A380s will be back in the air by 2024.
On August 19th, the tenth Airbus A350-900 was handed over to Japan Airlines.
The delivery of this jet leaves just three A350-900s outstanding
on an order that dates back to 2013.
On August 24th Delta Air Lines announced that it had augmented its order for Airbus A321neo
aircraft by 30 additional jets. This will bring the airline to 155 firm commitments
for the A321neo, with options for 70 more aircraft. It’s expected that these
aircraft will be used to replace aging Boeing 757-200s as well as takeover for older A320s
while providing more capacity on the same routes.
That same week, LATAM Brazil received its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, coming from
its Chilean sister airline. The widebody will help LATAM push its long-haul connectivity from
the Brazilian market, following the surprising lease rejection of the former Airbus A350 fleet.
On the topic, LATAM Brazil captain and instructor, Celso Giannini Oliveira said:
“The certification process...of the B787 fleet into LATAM Brazil is motivation
and a career opportunity for our crews. It is also an important step towards efficiency and
sustainability. An important push for the Brazilian aeronautical industry.”
We then found out at Air New Zealand’s end-of-year results that it would be simplifying its fleet
over the coming years. Indeed, by the end of 2028, the airline plans to operate just two
aircraft types in its main fleet: Boeing 787s and Airbus A320s. Its regional turboprop
fleet however, will stay the same. This will see the airline phase out
its 777-300ERs. The first of these is due to leave the fleet soon and return to its
lessor. The remaining six will stay until around 2025 when they will gradually be phased out.
Staying in the region, we found out near the end of August that Virgin
Australia would be adding nine 737-800s to its fleet. The airline believes that as more
people get vaccinated for COVID-19 there will be a surge in domestic air traffic.
The first of the leased aircraft is scheduled to arrive in October,
followed by the rapid delivery of the remaining aircraft.
At the latest, all nine new planes are expected to be at Virgin’s Brisbane hub by February 2022.
Well, as usual, we weren’t able to cover everything in this video,
or go into as much detail as we would have liked. But as with
all of our videos, there’s a more detailed corresponding article on SimpleFlying.com.
Check out the links in the description to learn more- and, as always,
share your thoughts on this video and any of the fleet changes we covered, by leaving a comment!