American Airlines has begun to repaint old US Airways A330’s into the new American livery. The first aircraft to be repainted into the American livery is N270AY. The aircraft is a 14 year old Airbus A330-300 which was delivered to US Airways in March 2000 bearing the registration N670UW. It is powered by two Pratt and Whitney PW4168A engines. The …
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Doha based carrier Qatar Airways has taken delivery of it’s first Airbus A380 super jumbo today, at a handover ceremony in Hamburg. Under-scoring the importance of their partnership, Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, officially took delivery of the aircraft from Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President and CEO. The airline has taken delivery of the aircraft after a three month stand-off …
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Michael O’Leary’s pursuit of a high density Boeing 737 finally came to fruition. US airframer Boeing has launched the 200 seat version of the 737 MAX 8 with a 100 airplane commitment from Ryanair, the Irish ultra-low cost carrier. Ryanair will also have options to purchase up to another 100 737 MAX 200 as the aircraft is being called. By …
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The first Airbus A320neo (new engine option) is making progress towards its first flight. The test aircraft airframe MSN 6101 (manufacturer’s serial number) test registered F-WNEO powered up its engines and performed taxi tests last week. You can see photos here, here and here Airbus is expecting this aircraft to perform its first flight some time later this month. READ …
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The recent airshow at Dubai saw commercial airlines place aircraft orders in excess of $206 billion. This dollar value is greater than the total tax collection of the Indian Government for the last fiscal year. While the ordered airplanes start generating cash for airlines only after being put in to service, the airlines have to commence payments on these aircraft …
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In the middle of July, I went on tour of the Hamburg plant of European airframer Airbus S.A.S. My whole European vacation was planned around this visit. For a confirmed aviation geek this was a dream come true. Hamburg Finkenwerder airport (IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI) is the head-quarters of Airbus in Germany. Over 15,000 people work at the facility where …
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Airbus has just announced the first A350 order since the launch of the A330neo. Air Mauritius has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to order four A350-900s. The airline has also announced that it will be leasing two additional A350-900s. The airline currently operates an all Airbus jet fleet including A319s, A330s and A340s.
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Day two of the show is officially over and as expected all the major players and some not so major players of the aviation industry announced orders for their various aircraft. Mitsubishi Aircraft: Announced an order for six Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) 90 for Myanmar based Air Mandalay. Bombardier: Launched a Passenger – Cargo combi version of their Q400 turboprop. …
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Airline will be first to receive delivery in 2017 Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Brégier said it best “We could not imagine an air show, at least for Airbus, without a signing ceremony with AirAsia” Malaysian low-cost long haul carrier AirAsia X, an affiliate of low-cost carrier AirAsia became the launch customer of, and the first airline to order, the …
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European airframer Airbus has announced a series of orders today at Farnborough. The first order from SMBC Aviation Capital for 110 Airbus A320neo and five A320ceo. This order is the largest single firm order by a leasing company. Singapore based leasing company, BOC Aviation has ordered an additional 43 A320 family aircraft. The order is for 36 A320ceo family aircraft …
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Kicking off today’s coverage of the Farnborough Airshow, we were invited to tour the Airbus A350-900 XWB. The aircraft at the show is in what Airbus calls a light flight test configuration. It is being used to test flight dynamics under light load conditions.
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Airbus crossed an important milestone for its A320neo single-aisle family, 3,000 orders. With a 110 A320neo aircraft from Japanese controlled lessor SMBC Aviation Capital earlier this morning at the Farnborough air show 2014, the European airframer now has 3,083 A320neo family aircraft on order from 57 different customers which include Indian airlines like IndiGo and AirAsia India. The A320neo family …
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US airframer Boeing showcased its new 787-9 Dreamliner as it began an aggressive counter to European rival Airbus ahead of the start of the Farnborough air show 2014. Readers will recall, Boeing delivered the first 787-9 to launch customer Air New Zealand less than a week ago. READ ONLINE: Video of Boeing 787-9 practising flying demonstration for Farnborough air show …
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The 2014 edition of the Farnborough Airshow opened today with a series of media briefings and a fly past by the Royal Airforce (RAF) Red Arrows. The show also had a series of Biz-Jets flying in and out. The Boeing P-8A Poseidon which was on display at RAF Fairford flew into the show today morning and was pushed into it’s …
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Future of A350-800 in doubt After much expectation, early this morning, European airframer Airbus has launched the A330-800neo and A330-900neo (new engine option) in ongoing its attempt to answer to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Deliveries of the A330neo are expected commence in the last quarter of 2017. The upgrade of one of the world’s most popular medium-range twin-jets, the A330neo …
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The 2014 of the Farnborough air show kicks off later today with all the big names in aviation showcasing the best they have to offer. The Bangalore Aviation team were at the show today and will kick off our show coverage with these pre-show pictures. We were also invited onto the first Boeing 787-9 made (ZB001), the airplane is in …
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European airframer Airbus S.A.S. has completed assembly of the first A320neo. Fitted with Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM PurePower engines, MSN6101 will be the first A320neo to fly sometime in September 2014 ahead of its entry in to service by end 2015. The aircraft will soon start its ground tests as part of its preparation for first flight. MSN6101 will be …
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Last month, we had the opportunity to shoot on the airside at Delhi International Airport (DIAL) at night. Like most of the major Indian airports, the night in Delhi brings with it a host of international traffic, most of which are wide bodies, which offers a great number of interesting photo opportunities. First up is a Dreamliner of Air India, …
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Last week Abu Dhabi based carrier Etihad, took delivery of it’s 100th and 101st aircraft on the same day. The one hundredth aircraft, an Airbus A321-231 registered A6-AEC, was delivered from the Airbus Finkenwerder facility in Hamburg. The 101st aircraft is an Airbus A320-200 bearing the registration A6-EIX. Both aircraft are equipped with the new ‘sharklet’ wing tips. On arrival in Abu Dhabi, the aircraft …
Read More »Just about two weeks ago, Dubai-based Emirates airline and European airframer Airbus S.A.S. announced the cancellation of the 70 aircraft A350 XWB order, 50 A350-900 and 20 A350-1000 citing outcomes “as a result of a fleet requirements review.” While the cancellation was downplayed by Airbus as “not good news commercially” but “not bad news financially”, it is most definitely a …
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