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TPAerospace.indd 1
17/11/2020 10:19:45
H
who flew across the Atlantic on the 737 MAX in 2017, I
ello and welcome to your January 2021
for one have every faith in the regulatory and approvals
edition of Airliner World. As we enter a new
process and will not hesitate to get back on board when
year, it feels like there is change in the
circumstances allow.
air. The news in mid-November from the
Quite whether the airlines themselves need a sudden
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that
glut of 200+ seater jets is another question… That said,
it is to lift the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX within
in recent weeks we’ve seen positive developments in the
the United States is a major breakthrough in returning the
world of science and medicine with promising results
type to global skies.
from a trio of COVID-19 vaccine trials. This combined
Within minutes of the announcement, FAA
with improvements of pre-departure testing, and
Administrator Steve Dickson was on a US cable news
innovative in-air projects from the likes of United Airlines
network stating that he would have no concerns about his
and Alitalia have come together to give the impression
family flying on the narrowbody jet. That Dickson even
that we’re entering 2021 on a stronger footing than many
had to say this is testament to the fact that for Boeing and
were expecting only a couple of months ago. Onwards and
many airline customers around the world, the MAX crisis
upwards we go!
may be coming to an end, but the PR battle is far from
Onto matters a little closer to home, and we’ve received
over. Consumers – many of whom are already wary of
incredible feedback from readers around
flying on a commercial aircraft due to the
the world to our free replica tickets in the
perceived threat of COVID-19 – will shortly
December issue. I’m delighted to say that
see the MAX resume scheduled service at
we have a further three alongside this
many of America’s biggest airlines. Despite
edition. Don’t forget: the final set will be
an unparalleled 20-month safety review
included with the February magazine
process, which the FAA has described as
for subscribers only – head over to
“comprehensive and methodical”, there will
shop.keypublishing.com/awsubs or
still be a struggle to win over some portions
turn to page 90 for all the details.
of the travelling public. For years to come,
Here’s to a fantastic 2021 for our readers
the MAX name will be intrinsically linked
and the wider aviation industry.
with a pair of deadly accidents and the
lacklustre initial response from stakeholders
Gordon Smith
to fully understand what went so badly
Group editor
wrong in the skies above Indonesia and
Ethiopia. To counter any spectre of fear,
expect airline marketing machines to be
cranked up to 11 to extol the virtues of a jet
COVER IMAGE • Within 30 years of the A300's
first flight, Airbus' airliner offering had
which is (now) widely considered to be the
expanded massively and incorporated the
most scrutinised, and by definition, the
A310, A330 and A340 – all derived from its
safest ever in passenger service. As someone maiden product AIRBUS
Gordon Smith
Group Editor,
Commercial Aviation
Martin Needham
Assistant Editor
Thomas Lee
Assistant Editor
Carol Randall
Associate Editor,
Commercial Aviation
Thomas Haynes
Digital Reporter
Andy O’Neil
Designer
Andy Mason
Advertising Manager
Rebecca Antoniades
Ad Production/Design
A 737 MAX 7 taking off
from Renton Field in
Washington, USA
BOEING
To collect the final
three retro tickets you
must be an Airliner World
subscriber by Dec 16, 2020.
See p90 for full details.
DEADLINE
DECEMBER 16
www.key.aero
3
06 Global news
20 The Baron’s predictions
24 The Brandenburg wait
Airliner World’s international news coverage
Felix Von Tempelhof gazes into his crystal ball
Berlin’s brand new, multi-billion-euro Brandenburg
airport is finally handling flights – nearly a decade
late and €5bn over budget
32 Picking up the pieces
The UK domestic aviation market experienced
seismic shocks in 2020. Tom Batchelor finds out
how airlines are weathering the storm
42 Pilgrimage to the Pyrenees
Sebastian Thoma concludes his photographic
series with a snapshot of Tarbes-Lourdes Airport
48 Set up to fail?
Stephen Skinner reflects on the Trident – the UK’s
attempt to create a world-beating trijet – in the
first of a two-part special retrospective
57 Aviation transformations
Ian Harbison investigates how COVID-19 has
affected aircraft modifications
62 The ‘other’ low-cost airlines
Charles Woodley recounts some of the upstarts
that tried to squeeze in on the UK’s mid-1990s and
early 2000s low-cost flying revolution
72 Polynesian propliners
Bernd Sturm recalls when Chathams Pacific
connected Tonga with Convair classics
82 Deliveries
86 MRO news
The latest commercial acquisitions
Updates from maintenance, repair and overhaul
providers around the world
88 Historic aviation
89 Aviation training
91 Air safety
92 Departure gate
News from the world of preservation
A round-up of recent developments
Up-to-date accident reports and crash information
Polynesian
propliners
72
The
Chathams
Pacific
Story
Readers’ comments, photographs, lighter industry
stories and a special book review section
96 The rapid rise of Airbus
Airliner World looks back at the creation of the
A300 and a pan-European manufacturing giant
See pages 46-47 for details
57
24
32
42
96 48
News Review • Europe
Hi Fly
set to
terminate
A380
PORTUGUESE WET-LEASE specialist,
Hi Fly, has opted to return its
sole Airbus A380-800 due to a
“consequence of the COVID-19
pandemic”, which has impacted
demand for very large aircraft.
The 14-year-old super jumbo,
9H-MIP (c/n 006) – painted in a
‘Save the Coral Reefs’ livery – will
be phased out at the end of its lease
term later this year after nearly three
years of service with the charter firm.
It will be replaced by an additional
A330, which is a “smaller and more
adequate
aircraft for
current market
conditions,”
according to a company statement.
During its time with Hi Fly, 9H-MIP
has been deployed on a wide variety
of missions. During 2018 and 2019,
the super jumbo operated flights
on behalf of Norwegian between
London/Gatwick-New York/JFK
following Rolls-Royce Trent 1000
engine issues with the Oslo-based
firm’s Boeing 787s. Elsewhere,
the A380 played a decisive role in
repatriating Thomas Cook customers
after the company ceased trading in
September 2019.
Earlier this year, Hi Fly sent 9H-MIP
on a 19,291-mile humanitarian
mission on behalf of The Mirpuri
Foundation. Departing Portugal,
with stopovers in Tianjin, China and
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
(Caribbean), it arrived back in Europe
after circumnavigating the globe in
33 hours and 45 minutes (see Airliner
World, July edition).
It also helped transport PPE in the
fight against COVID-19.
In one final tribute, Hi Fly has asked
anyone who has flown on 9H-MIP to
submit some mementoes, be they
personal stories, photographs, artwork
or even hand prints.
All the submissions will be showcased
on a company-created mural at its
Lisbon headquarters until the A380’s
last day. The memorabilia will be boxed
up and flown on the aircraft’s final flight
for the carrier.
(Photo v1images.com/Fabrizio Spicuglia)
Traffic slumps in second lockdown
UK AIRLINE traffic figures plunged in
November after England entered into
a second full lockdown for a month
– which was due to have ended by
December 2.
A vast number of scheduled flights
were temporarily suspended after
the government reimposed measures
“underpinned by law” which banned
travel, both within the country and
overseas, with exceptions for some
work, education and legal reasons.
According to figures from the travel
data and analytics expert, Cirium, the
airline that cut most of its November
scheduled departures was easyJet,
down 49% compared with the end of
October. The Luton-based carrier also
revealed it experienced its first ever
full-year loss of £1.27bn as a result of
the pandemic.
In second, third and fourth places
for scheduled departure cuts were
Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and British
Airways standing at 22%, 19%
6
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
and 6%, respectively. Conversely,
Wizz Air did not implement any
reductions – and is currently 19%
up for scheduled departures
compared with the same period 12
months earlier.
On a wider scale, when comparing
all regions of the world for flight
activity, Europe was, still by far, the
worst area affected, down 67%
over November 2019. In contrast,
Asia Pacific and North America
have shown the strongest recovery,
now ‘only’ down 36% and 46%,
respectively. Europe’s sluggish
revival has stemmed from a rise in
coronavirus infections and newly
imposed measures designed to
prevent a worse second wave.
As of November 11, more than 8,100
aircraft across the globe remain in
storage – equivalent to 31% of the
combined world fleet.
(Photo Javier Rodríguez)
News Review • Europe
in brief
Loganair has confirmed a return to Teesside
International and launch to five destinations.
From February 1, the regional carrier is
due to connect the northeastern facility
with Aberdeen and Belfast City six- and
seven-times-a-week respectively. The other
three routes should come online in the
summer serving Dublin, Newquay and Jersey
with seven, three and two weekly frequencies
respectively. All links are to be flown by
Loganair’s 13-strong fleet of Embraer ERJ145s.
The carrier last served Teesside in 2018.
Norwegian ponders position
THE CHIEF executive of Norwegian Air
has described the outlook for the
low-cost firm as “uncertain” after
Norway’s government refused to
provide any further financial support.
The carrier said it “clearly
communicated” that additional funds
were needed to continue its flying
programme during the pandemic.
However it appears to have had little
traction among politicians in Oslo.
Jacob Schram, the airline’s CEO,
said that the rejection was “a slap
in the face”, and added “we will do
everything in our power to get through
this crisis”. The CEO hit back at what he
sees as the unfair advantages offered
to rivals, alleging that “competitors are
receiving billions in funding from their
respective governments”.
He also warned that if Norwegian’s
operations were to shrink further,
or even disappear completely, there
would be major implications for
domestic air traffic.
Schram also emphasised
Norwegian’s pivotal role in boosting
the country’s economy by 18bn NOK
(£1.52bn) per year. He argued that
giving moderate financial support
to the airline would generate a
substantial and profitable investment.
In response to the move by
politicians in Oslo, Norwegian
initiated an examinership process
in Ireland on November 18 for
its Norwegian Air International
Limited and Arctic Aviation Assets
subsidiaries “in the interest of its
stakeholders”. The carrier’s bosses
are confident that entering this
process – expected to last five
months – will allow it to reorganise
and secure new capital, right size the
fleet and reduce its debt.
In the meantime, Norwegian is
planning to carry on operating the
same COVID-19 schedule and will
continue trading normally on the Oslo
Stock Exchange.
Norwegian’s financial position
comes after it halted all transatlantic
operations, coupled with a collapse
in leisure travel and mounting debts
that have led to doubts about its
longer-term strategy.
(Photo Norwegian Air Shuttle)
Brandenburg finally
open for business
EASYJET AND Lufthansa made history
as the first carriers to officially land at
the long-awaited Berlin Brandenburg
on the day of its opening.
The first aircraft to touch down
at the new gateway on October
31 was British-registered Airbus
A320neo, G-UZHF (c/n 8193). The
186-seat jet arrived as flight EJU 3110,
inbound from the now-closed Tegel
Airport, carrying easyJet CEO Johan
Lundgren among the dignitaries.
It landed on Brandenburg’s Runway
25R at 2:02pm local time and four
minutes later, Lufthansa A320neo,
D-AINZ (c/n 9442) – wearing special
markings – arrived from Munich as LH
2020, also with the flag carrier’s CEO
Carsten Spohr on board.
A scheduled parallel landing had to
be cancelled due to poor weather.
The following morning, easyJet also had
the honour of performing the inaugural
scheduled departure when G-UZHF left
the German facility at 6:47am bound for
its London/Gatwick base.
Three days later, Qatar Airways
became the first operator to use
the facility’s other airstrip, the
13,123ft-long Runway 25L, when
A350-900, A7-AMF (c/n 172), arrived
on the QR81 service from Doha.
Following Brandenburg’s opening,
Berlin became a one-airport hub.
This was achieved after neighbouring
Schönefeld Airport, which sits on
the boundary of Brandenburg, was
merged with the new facility. The city’s
other gateway, Tegel, shut its doors
permanently on November 8 following
the final departure of Air France
A320ceo, F-GKXP (c/n 3470).
For more on Brandenburg’s opening,
please see pages 24-31.
(Photo Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg
GmbH/Günter Wicker)
Airseven is go for launch
The first aircraft for Danish start-up, Airseven, was unveiled on October 31 after it left the Airbourne Colours
paint shop at East Midlands Airport. The Boeing 737-400, YR-BAZ (c/n 24644), which still wore its former
Romanian registration – after serving with Blue Air – has since become OY-ASA. A second Classic 737 for
the charter airline, OY-ASB (c/n 27007), emerged in its new colours two days later. According to Airseven’s
website, the carrier will fly under the Copenhagen AirTaxi air operator certificate and will focus its business
model on holiday charters, ad-hoc and ACMI flights. AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/STUART LAWSON
Amazon Prime Air has begun operations
in Europe. Boeing 737-800BCFs, EI-DAC
(c/n 29938) and EI-DAD (c/n 33544), are
operated by ASL Airlines Ireland and wear
the striking all-blue Prime Air livery. The
aircraft are based at Leipzig/Halle Airport in
Germany, which according to Amazon will
bring “more flexible delivery options” as it
takes advantage of a 215,000sq ft cargo
facility. The ex-189-seat Ryanair aircraft
were delivered to the Irish budget carrier in
December 2002 before being withdrawn
and converted to freighters last year. A third
Ryanair example, EI-DAF (c/n 29939), is also
due to join Amazon Prime Air.
Ukraine International Airlines is set to boost
its London presence after confirming it would
begin flights to the UK’s largest gateway,
Heathrow Airport. From December 17, the
flag carrier has scheduled a thrice-weekly link
from its base at Kyiv/Boryspil. The rotation,
operated by its seven-strong Embraer E-jet
fleet, will depart the Ukrainian capital on
Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 9:50am
and arrive at Heathrow’s Terminal 2 at 11:25am.
Around an hour later, the flight departs
London and lands back in Kyiv at 5:40pm
local time. The service will complement
its existing London link at neighbouring
Gatwick (also thrice-weekly), which operates
on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
(Photo Flickr Commons/Anna Zvereva)
The first airframe for Milan-based
EGO Airways has been spotted in the
start-up’s colour scheme said to represent
the sun, earth and moon. The General Electric
CF34-powered 12-year-old jet, I-EGOA
(c/n 19000165) Martina, was originally
delivered to Panama City-based Copa
Airlines before being acquired by German
firm, WDL Aviation, which then leased it to
EGO. As Airliner World went to press, EGO did
not hold an air operator certificate, although
Italian news outlet Malpensa24, said the
airline expects to begin operations next
year from Milan/Malpensa to destinations
including Florence, Pisa and Verona.
Proposed British start-up, flypop, has
announced it received a “significant
investment” from the UK Government’s
Future Fund – a scheme supporting innovative
businesses during the pandemic. Bosses at
flypop said the funding is key to its ambition
to launch as a “long-haul low-cost airline”
between the UK and India from next year. The
firm’s website states intentions to start initial
services from London/Stansted to Amritsar
and Ahmedabad using an Airbus A330.
www.key.aero
7
Peter Foster Interview • CIS
Testing t
Gordon Smith catches up with Peter Foster, CEO of Air Astana
to discuss how the Kazakh flag carrier is navigating the COVID-19 crisis
FOR MANY of us, Kazakhstan may look
and feel like a rather distant place, far
removed from what we know at home.
However within seconds of picking up
the phone to the boss of its national
airline, it soon becomes clear that the
coronavirus presents just as much of
a headache to aviation executives in
Almaty as it does to those in Australia
or America.
Peter Foster is an industry veteran,
having entered the airline sector
immediately after graduating from
university in the early 1980s. In
addition to almost two decades at
Cathay Pacific Airways, his resumé
also features stints at Philippine
8
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Airlines and Royal Brunei before being
appointed president and CEO of Air
Astana in 2005. Despite almost 40
years in the trade, Foster said he’s
never seen anything quite like 2020.
Before the pandemic hit, the airline
operated an impressive network of
60 international and domestic routes
leveraging a dual-hub approach in
Almaty and Nur-Sultan (formerly known
as Astana). Lockdowns in Kazakhstan
and many of its major overseas markets
led to the temporary suspension of
almost all flights in March. Although the
situation has stabilised since the initial
outbreak, Foster is under no illusion that
solutions need to be found – and fast.
Speaking to Airliner World from
the commercial hub of Almaty,
he emphasised that scientific
developments will be critical for the
health of the population and the
global economy: “We are firmly of the
opinion that pre-departure testing
on international routes is key to the
recovery. We recognise that the current
testing technology – if you have a test
48 hours or 60 hours before departure
– is not fool-proof, it’s not impossible
you could contract it in the intervening
period. It isn’t entirely risk-free, but
what form of activity ever is?”
The CEO highlighted that a proper
system of pre-departure testing should
benefit the wider travel ecosystem
well beyond those directly involved in
the aviation sector. “It minimises the
risk and allows us to get the industry
going – and we’re not just talking
about airlines – it is the travel sector,
hotels and leisure. It is a huge sphere of
economic activity worldwide.”
While there has been plenty of talk
about testing on arrival or even predeparture at airports, Foster said that
current regulations for entry to many
countries require a negative PCR
(polymerase chain reaction) test – a
process that can take up to a day to
complete. “Right now a reliable PCR
test takes between six and 24 hours
Peter Foster Interview • CIS
times
[to receive the results] depending on
where you’re getting it, so airport
testing isn’t actually the relevant issue,
because most people aren’t going
to go there, get tested and then sit
around for six, 12 or 24 hours. That will
change when the testing gets much
quicker and when the anti-gen tests
are considered to be more reliable and
instantaneous. When that happens,
airport testing will be key but, for
the time being, it is all about testing
facilities in the community. Dubai
and Istanbul are great examples,
both cities have good infrastructure
where you can book a test and get a
result pretty quickly. Turn up at the
airport, show your test results, arrive
in Kazakhstan, show the results again
and you’re home and clear.”
In the absence of a formalised predeparture testing regimen, ‘travel
bubbles’ have been touted as an
interim solution by many politicians
and some travel industry leaders.
Foster is less keen on the approach,
noting that they are typically “on the
basis of infections within the country,
which change overnight and are totally
subjective”. As an alternative, the
ever-pragmatic Air Astana chief moots
a more structured version of ‘travel
corridors’ as a real possibility. “I believe
in having travel corridors defined by
testing requirements agreed between
governments. If we can adopt these
general requirements at major airports,
we will get the industry back on track,
and by god we need to do that!”
Looking beyond the role of testing,
one of the major trends over the past
year has been the increased visibility
of freight traffic. With many scheduled
passenger services paralysed, the
cargo that would typically travel in the
belly-hold has had to find a new way to
reach its destination. Foster confirmed
that one of Air Astana’s three Boeing
767-300ERs has been converted
into a “semi-freighter” following
extensive modification from its previous
configuration (see Airliner World,
December). “It’s doing a lot of work.
Obviously, it isn’t flying an absolutely
Astana management has hastened
the planned retirement of eight
aircraft, including four 757-200s and
four Embraer E190s as part of a wider
restructuring. Foster revealed that the
airline is renegotiating the departure
of all of the Brazilian narrowbodies,
confirming that “all four of the
remaining aircraft are on the way out”.
Foster further suggested that while
COVID-19 hadn’t radically changed
the longer term fleet plan, it has had a
notable catalytic effect. While saying
farewell to the 757s and E190s, it’s ‘қош
келдіңіз’ (that’s welcome in Kazakh)
OPPOSITE: Peter Foster joined the Kazakh flag carrier
in 2005 AIR ASTANA
THIS IMAGE: The Airbus A321LR has replaced the
carrier's Boeing 757-200s AIR ASTANA
MAX examples. Foster confirmed that
the LoI for its budget unit has not been
converted into a firm order yet, and
emphasised that “it doesn’t mean it is
off the table”, but will be influenced by
the wider economic outlook.
Reviewing at the situation closer to
home, Foster said domestic traffic
is actually performing pretty well,
with total take-offs and landings for
September 2020 up year-on-year when
FlyArystan is included. The pinch point
is international operations, which are
down 75%. This translates into overall
ASKs (available seat kilometres) of
“I believe in having travel corridors defined by testing requirements
agreed between governments. If we can adopt these general
requirements at major airports, we will get the industry back on track,
and by god we need to do that!”
full schedule, and it doesn’t have the
utilisation we’d normally expect, but
the aircraft is doing a decent job for us.
As for our other two 767s, we’re often
restricted in terms of frequencies to
many destinations, but not in terms
of gauge – so what we’ve done is to
upsize a lot of routes where we would
normally deploy an A320 or even an
Embraer – because the frequency has
been so heavily restricted, we’ve been
able to put a 767 on it. So actually,
overall the other two are working
quite hard – harder than we would’ve
expected going into all this.”
The fleet changes haven’t been limited
to its trio of Boeing widebodies. Air
to Embraer E2s and Airbus A321LRs.
The European jet is deployed on almost
every international route and is due
to make its London debut in summer
2021, pandemic permitting. “It is just a
fantastic aircraft from a passenger point
of view. The market loves it, and it has
put us right up there as one of the best
operators in the world.”
Looking beyond the core flag carrier
operations, one part of the business
where the virus may have a broader
impact on fleet requirements is
FlyArystan. In November 2019 the
wholly owned low-cost subsidiary
made headlines by signing a letter
of intent (LoI) for up to 30 Boeing 737
around 52% compared to 2019.
“We’ve been developing SixthFreedom traffic for the last seven years
or so and by the end of last year it
formed about 25% of our revenue – and
its gone, the whole lot has gone. To lose
a quarter of your market is painful but
it is not existential. In our case, we can
rebuild our model on the basis of pointto-point – it isn’t a mortal blow.”
As we enter 2021, there is cautious
optimism that if rapid passenger testing
can be agreed between countries or
regions, an uplift in passenger traffic
will follow. In the meantime, Foster and
the wider Air Astana team continue to
navigate a storm quite unlike any other.
www.key.aero
9
News Review • Africa/Middle East
Etihad in “mid-size” pivot
IN RESPONSE to the devastating effects
of COVID-19, management at Etihad
Airways have outlined a restructure to
make the company more “streamlined”.
As a result, the Abu Dhabi-based
operator is set to become a mid-sized
carrier centred around its fleet of
widebody jets.
According to company bosses, having
a streamlined approach will make its
operations leaner and more scalable as
future passenger demand slowly returns,
allowing it to “meet the challenges of the
global downturn in aviation head on”.
Tony Douglas, group chief executive
officer, Etihad Aviation Group, said:
“After our best-ever Q1 performance,
none of us could have predicted
the challenges that lay ahead in the
remainder of this year…
“As a responsible business, we can
no longer continue to incrementally
adapt to a marketplace that we believe
has changed for the foreseeable
future. That is why we are taking
definitive and decisive action to adjust
our business and position ourselves
as a mid-sized carrier.”
The firm has already implemented
the first phase of the restructure
following a shake-up among its
senior leadership team, which has
included the stepping down of its chief
commercial officer.
Etihad currently has a fleet of 104
aircraft, comprising 30 Airbus A320
Family jets, ten A380s, 25 777s and
39 787 Dreamliners.
In other Etihad developments, the
company has announced a new
scheduled service to the Israeli hub
of Tel Aviv from March 28. According
to the airline, the daily service to
the city’s Ben Gurion gateway will
generate point-to-point business and
leisure traffic between Israel and the
UAE. Flights will be conveniently timed
to arrive in Abu Dhabi for onward
connections to Australia, China, India
and Thailand.
The move comes after a thaw in
relations between both countries
thanks to the signing of the Abraham
Accords agreement in September (see
Airliner World, December edition).
(Photo Flickr Commons/LoadedAaron)
Smallest A330neo variant delivered
KUWAIT AIRWAYS has become the
first airline to receive the Airbus A330800 after two were handed over by
the European manufacturer. The twoclass, 235-seat widebodies, 9K-APF
(c/n 1964) and 9K-APG (c/n 1969),
arrived in Kuwait City on October 29.
The carrier has six more examples of
the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000-powered
airframe on the order books.
Captain Ali Mohammad Al-Dukhan,
Kuwait Airways chairman,
commented: “The delivery of the
first two A330neos is yet another
10
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
significant milestone for Kuwait
Airways as we progress towards our
goals and implementation of our fleet
development strategy.
“The introduction of the [type] to our
expanding fleet strengthens Kuwait
Airways’ position as a prominent
airline in both the regional and global
aviation sector.”
As we went to press, the airline
had started deploying the type on
its maiden fare-paying services. On
November 20, 9K-APF flew between
Kuwait City and Dubai/International
as flights KU671/672, while 9K-APG
performed its first service – also
on the route – four days later. The
carrier fields a 27-strong fleet which
comprises a majority of Airbus-built
jets, including 11 A320s (seven CEOs
and four NEOs) and five A330-200s.
Since the launch of the A330-800
– which boasts a range of 8,150nm
– orders for the type have remained
sluggish. At the time of writing,
commitments for just 14 aircraft have
been made. In addition to Kuwait’s
eight, Uganda Airlines placed an order
for two in April of last year while Air
Greenland is understood to be taking
a single example (see Airliner World,
March 2020 edition); the remaining three
remain undisclosed. Conversely its larger
A330-900 stablemate has gained 318
orders as of November 2020.
(Photo Airbus)
News Review • Africa/Middle East
in brief
Super-sized ‘mini-freighter’
EMIRATES SKYCARGO has begun
bespoke charter operations using
its Airbus A380-800s to transport
urgently required cargo across its
global network.
The dedicated A380 ‘mini-freighter’
undertook its first mission transporting
medical supplies between Seoul,
South Korea and the Dutch capital,
Amsterdam via the firm’s Dubai home
and hub. Through collaboration with
the engineering and flight operations
teams within Emirates, its SkyCargo
division has been able to optimise the
freight capacity of the super jumbo to
safely transport approximately 55 tons
of goods per flight in the belly hold
of the aircraft.
Bosses at Emirates SkyCargo have said
it introduced dedicated cargo operations
on the type in response to a “surge in the
demand for air cargo capacity” requiring
the urgent transportation of critical items
such as COVID-19 medical supplies in
regions experiencing a second wave of
the virus.
The company said it is currently
working to “further optimise the
capacity of its Airbus A380s” through
measures such as seat loading of cargo.
The air cargo carrier has also set up
a rapid response team to co-ordinate
requests for the movement of the
much-anticipated coronavirus
vaccine. It is expected that hundreds
of aircraft from around the world will
be required to assist in its distribution
upon certification by the respective
medical regulators.
Emirates SkyCargo is the freight
management division of the Dubaibased firm and operates 11 Boeing
777Fs. Additionally, during the
pandemic it has rostered a further 14
passenger-configured 777-300ERs
from the mainline carrier – all economy
seats are removed to increase the
cargo volume. (Photo Emirates)
Astral accepts maiden 767F
NAIROBI-BASED ASTRAL Aviation has
added its first Boeing 767-200BDSF
to the fleet. The 1982-vintage
airframe, 5Y-SNL (c/n 22217), has
been acquired under a five-year lease
from Cargo Aircraft Management – a
subsidiary of Air Transport Services
Group (ATSG).
“This aircraft will allow us to better
serve the needs of our customers
throughout our intra-African and
Middle East networks, and ATSG’s
support and assistance has been
indispensable,” said Sanjeev Gadhia,
chief executive officer of Astral.
“Establishing a partnership with
the world’s largest lessor of 767s is
something we have been after for
some time now. I view this as the
start to something special for
Astral and all of sub-Saharan Africa.”
This specific 767 – 5Y-SNL – has a
long history. The Everett-built jet is
one of the earliest 767s produced
after it was delivered to Delta Air
Lines in January 1983 as N105DA, the
fifth example acquired at the time by
the Atlanta-based firm.
After being withdrawn in 2006, it
was converted to a freighter and has
since served with carriers including
ABX Air and West Air Sweden.
Astral operates scheduled and
charter cargo flights to more than 50
destinations in Africa and Europe from
its Nairobi, Kenya and Liege, Belgium
bases. It has a varied fleet, with types
including the Fokker 50, McDonnell
Douglas DC-9 and 747-400BDSF.
(Photo Astral Aviation)
A widebody in waiting
This 297-seat, ex-Air Europa Airbus A330-200, EC-LQO (c/n 505), has been painted up in the colours of its new Democratic Republic of the Congo-based
owner, Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA). The 18-year-old Trent 700-powered airframe, which is yet to be put on the country’s register, was pictured
at Palma de Mallorca ahead of its delivery. The airframe is set to become CAA’s first twin-aisle example. It has been reported that bosses at the company
want to open a Kinshasa-Brussels route, although this remains complicated as the airline is currently banned from flying into European airspace. Currently,
the firm operates domestic services to 12 destinations within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada has handed
over the 30th Dash 8-400 to Ethiopian
Airlines. The milestone was reached after
two turboprops, ET-AXY (c/n 4617) and
ET-AXX (c/n 4615), were simultaneously
delivered to the firm’s Addis Ababa base at
the end of October. According to Tewolde
GebreMariam, group chief executive,
Ethiopian Airlines, the type provides
“operational flexibility” which has played
a critical role in the East African carrier’s
regional network during the COVID-19 crisis.
It received its first Dash 8-400 in March 2010.
South Africa’s newest carrier, LIFT, operated
by Global Aviation Operations, was mooted
to start routes as of December 10. According
to the start-up’s website, the airline is set to
deploy a trio of Airbus A320s on domestic
rotations from Johannesburg’s O R Tambo
gateway to the country’s second largest
city, Cape Town, along with George in the
Western Cape. In a statement, bosses at LIFT
say they have seen the pandemic as a way
to develop a “unique flexible model” where
flights and routes can be quickly added
based on demand”. The firm’s name was
chosen from more than 25,000 suggestions
and the winners will have their names
adorned on its aircraft.
Airlink has revealed fresh branding which
incorporates a new livery and an official
name change – it was formerly SA Airlink
– as the carrier transitions into a “totally
independent airline”. The colour scheme,
first applied to a General Electric CF34equipped Embraer E190, ZS-YAB (c/n
19000195), features an “African Sunbird
set against a sunrise and dawn sky” on
the vertical stabiliser. The livery will be
rolled out to the rest of the Airlink fleet as
each aircraft undergoes its next scheduled
deep-maintenance overhaul. This year it
was announced that Airlink had ended a
23-year franchise agreement with South
African Airways. (Photo Airlink)
Doha-based Qatar Airways is due to launch
two new services. From December 14, a
weekly rotation to Angola’s capital, Luanda,
will begin using the flag carrier’s 30-strong
contingent of Boeing 787-8s. The route
was originally earmarked for a Spring 2020
introduction before being pushed back as a
consequence of the pandemic. Meanwhile,
San Francisco is due to be connected from
Doha on December 15 on a four-timesweekly frequency. The service – a distance
of 8,075 miles – is due to be plied by
the Airbus A350-900, featuring its flagship
Qsuite business class product.
Gulf Air has earmarked the deployment of its
new Airbus A321LR on the connection to Malé
in the Maldives. From December 12, the route
to the popular Indian Ocean destination is
scheduled to resume after being suspended
as a result of coronavirus. The Bahrain-based
firm currently has a single A321LR, A9C-NA
(c/n 9433), which has been used on the link
to Frankfurt and Paris. A second example,
A9C-NB (c/n 10169), featuring a retro-inspired
colour scheme (see Airliner World, December
edition), is due to be handed over imminently.
www.key.aero
11
News Review • Americas
777-300F gains first customer
MICHIGAN-BASED KALITTA Air, has
signed a commitment with GE Capital
Aviation Services (GECAS) for a trio of
Boeing 777-300ERSF airframes.
With this deal, the cargo operator
is set to be the launch customer for
the passenger-to-freighter type.
Deliveries to Kalitta are anticipated
from 2023.
The type’s conversion programme,
which was announced in 2019, is
jointly funded by GECAS and Israel
Aerospace Industries (IAI). The
prototype aircraft, N557CC (c/n 32789)
– a former Emirates example which
had the registration A6-EBB
– arrived at Tel Aviv/Ben Gurion last
June ahead of its modification. Once
complete, the 777 will be the largest
ever twin-engine freighter.
Conrad Kalitta, the owner of Kalitta
Air, commented: “[We provide] air
express delivery all around the world
for virtually any type of freight [and] the
addition of these three 777-300ERSF
freighters will help us meet the needs
of our customers.”
Rich Greener, senior vice-president
and manager of GECAS cargo
strategy, added: “We are delighted
to continue our 15-year relationship
with Kalitta Air and proud they’ve
become the launch customer with the
777-300ERSF freighter for its future
air cargo operations. The [jet] shares
an extensive commonality with the
production 777-200LRF, that’s a
benefit to any operator looking to
bring a new type into their fleet.”
GECAS states the widebody will offer
25% more capacity and a 21% lower
fuel-burn per tonne than the current
four-engine freighters available.
(Photo GECAS)
Delta’s ‘Big Twin’ bows out
THE FINAL Boeing 777 rotation by
Delta Air Lines has taken place and
ends a 21-year association with the
widebody workhorse.
On October 31, the -200LR example,
N701DN (c/n 29740), performed the
type’s last fare-paying service for
Delta between New York/JFK and
Los Angeles landing 25 minutes
early. After the final passengers
disembarked, N701DN departed on
a 25-minute hop to the Southern
California Logistics Airport (Victorville)
for storage – from where it will be sold
on or scrapped.
Ed Bastian, Delta CEO, said: “Retiring
a fleet as iconic as the 777 is not
an easy decision – I know it has a
direct impact on many of you who
12
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
fly, crew and service these jets. The
[type] played an important role with
Delta since 1999, allowing us to open
new long-haul markets and grow
our international network as we
transformed into a global airline.”
In its history, Delta operated 18
examples of the 777. This comprised
eight -200ERs – delivered between
1999 and 2002 – and ten -200LRs,
accepted between 2008 and 2010.
The latter was then the world's
longest-range commercial aircraft
and bolstered Delta’s international
expansion. It could serve nearly any
global city pairs nonstop, including
Atlanta-Johannesburg (South Africa)
and Los Angeles-Sydney (Australia).
John Laughter, senior vice
president and chief of operations,
added: “The 777 was a workhorse in
helping Delta become the premium
carrier for business travel, and it
undoubtedly positioned us as a
leader in international markets.
“Even in its final months, the
777 was a big component of our
cargo operation in providing critical
supplies to our communities.”
The retirement of the 777 from
the Atlanta-based operator’s fleet
comes as the airline attempts to
streamline its expansive fleet,
which before May comprised nearly
20 different variants (see Airliner
World, December edition). As the
carrier aims to “modernise” its fleet,
more efficient replacements have
come online including the Airbus
A350-900, which, according to
Delta, burns 21% less fuel per seat
than the 777.
(Photo Flickr Commons/ Tomás
Del Coro)
News Review • Americas
Back on the way to JFK
AFTER AN absence of more than five
years, United Airlines is set to stage
a comeback at New York/JFK from
February 1.
The new flights are due to operate
from JFK’s Terminal 7, with two cities
on the destination board for the initial
launch. Both are transcontinental links,
with services to Los Angeles and San
Francisco, each receiving two
daily round-trips.
According to the firm, flights from JFK
to the US West Coast will also allow it
to “participate in the robust
cargo market”.
Scott Kirby, United's chief executive,
commented: “I have been waiting a
long time to say this – United Airlines
is back at JFK. Come early [2021], we
will be serving all three major
New York City area airports with a
best-in-class product … from New York
City and the West Coast."
With high competition on
transcontinental routes, the
Chicago-based carrier will use its
Boeing 767-300ERs with “an extended
premium cabin” comprising 46
flat-bed seats from its flagship Polaris
business class product.
Additionally, the widebody will
feature 22 United premium plus,
47 economy plus and 52 standard
economy seats.
According to United Airline’s
management, the latest move is a
“continuation of aggressively and
strategically managing the impact
of COVID-19 by increasing service
to and from the places where
customers want to fly”.
Since September 2020, United has
revealed a swathe of new routes
and increased frequencies. For
example, from December its inaugural
connection between Chicago/O’Hare
and New Delhi was due to have taken
flight, while it has also carried out
its Central American and Caribbean
winter expansion.
Domestically, the airline added
more than 1,400 flights during the
Thanksgiving holiday in November.
(Photo Flickr Commons/redlegsfan21)
Mitigation momentum
AIR CANADA has implemented
several measures as part of its
‘COVID-19 Mitigation and Recovery
Plan’ in an effort to weather the
pandemic’s financial storm.
The flag carrier will phase out 79
airframes, comprising the Airbus
A319ceo, Boeing 767 and Embraer
E190 – helping to reduce the cost
structure at the same time as limiting
its future environmental footprint.
The Montréal-headquartered firm
has, meanwhile, made changes to
its orderbook.
For the A220-300, it has deferred
“18 aircraft deliveries over 2021 and
2022” while cancelling a further
12 altogether. Five A220s are still
scheduled to be handed over to Air
Canada during Q4 of 2020.
Additionally, the company has
cancelled orders for ten 737 MAX 8s
while making a deferral of 16 “over
the late 2021 to 2023” timeframe.
The airline stated that through
fleet restructuring, along with
other capital reduction initiatives,
it lowered its planned capital
expenditures by US$3bn for the
2020-2023 period, compared with
2019 projections.
A statement from Calin Rovinescu,
president and chief executive of Air
Canada, in its Q3 2020 results, said:
“Despite modifications made to our
orders, these two aircraft [models]
remain the core of our narrowbody
fleet and enable us to efficiently
serve transcontinental domestic and
transborder routes through improved
economics and range, while providing
an excellent customer experience.”
During Q3, Air Canada reported a
loss of US$685m – down US$956m
in comparison with the same period
12 months earlier.
(Photo Air Canada)
in brief
In a letter to its employees, American
Airlines outlined plans for the Boeing 737
MAX’s reintroduction following Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) approval
(see News International, pages 16-17).
It revealed that if the carrier’s pilots and
the Allied Pilots Association (APA) deem
the type safe, bosses are “confident” of
its return to service. American’s 2,600
MAX pilots will undertake FAA-mandated
training beforehand. December 29 is mooted
for a return to scheduled flying with a
Miami-New York/LaGuardia round-trip. It
anticipates ramping up January MAX flights
to at least 36 departures “depending on the
day of the week” from its south Florida hub.
Swoop has begun operations from Canada’s
largest facility, Toronto/Pearson. Initially, six
destinations were launched on the seasonal
services, lasting until April 24, four domestic:
Halifax (daily), Abbotsford, Edmonton (both
six-weekly) and Kelowna (four-weekly); and a
pair of international destinations to Cancún,
Mexico and Montego Bay, Jamaica five times
weekly. The ultra low-cost carrier has since
added to its Toronto network, with holiday
hotspots Las Vegas, Tampa (both four a week)
and Orlando (five-weekly). (Photo Swoop)
South American e-commerce giant, Mercado
Libre, has established its own dedicated
air logistics firm called Meli Air to speed
up delivery of its customers’ packages. It
will employ other cargo airlines to operate
on its behalf. It has currently received a
pair of veteran Boeing 737-400SFs, PR-SDM
(c/n 24690) and PP-WSA (c/n 25375), 30
and 26 years old, respectively. While the
airframes will be operated by Brazilian cargo
firm, Sideral Linhas Aéreas, both have been
painted in a striking all-yellow livery with
Mercado Libre titles. It’s understood another
pair of Classic 737 freighters will be procured.
New York-based carrier JetBlue Airways
has shaken up the delivery timeframe for
its Airbus A321neos due to COVID-19. A
quarterly report released in November said
delivery of its remaining 74 A321neos would
now be complete by 2027, a year later than
planned. It means the number scheduled
for each year has shifted; for example,
the 32 A321neos originally intended for
acceptance between 2021-2023 will be
reduced to 22. Its orderbook for the A220
is unchanged with receipt of 70 jets by the
intended 2026 timeframe.
The United States government has
inked a new air services agreement with
the United Kingdom. The deal, signed by
the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo,
and US Transportation Secretary, Elaine
Chao, allows the “safeguarding of flights”
between the countries at the end of the
transition period as the UK leaves the
European Union. Both are global aviation
hubs, with passenger and cargo traffic on
transatlantic rotations contributing to trade
worth more than US$230bn every year.
www.key.aero
13
News Review • Asia/Pacific
South Korean merger mooted
THE TWO biggest carriers in South
Korea are earmarked for merger after
Korean Air’s owner, the Hanjin Group,
revealed it would acquire Asiana
Airlines. The acquisition, set to cost
Korean Air 1.8 trillion won (US$1.6bn),
has emerged as a result of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Bosses at Hanjin/Korean Air, stated
the decision to go ahead with the
move would help “stabilise the
Korean aviation industry” amid the
abrupt fallout caused by COVID-19.
Moreover, they added that without
the deal, the financial status of the
flag carrier – Korean Air – would be
“endangered” if the virus’ affects
remained prolonged.
Once the merger is complete,
the newly combined airline would
become more competitive against
“global mega airlines” as its fleet,
routes and capacity are boosted.
Additionally, with more slots gained
at Seoul/Incheon, operations would
become streamlined as it creates a
mega-hub for passenger and cargo
traffic. This would generate more
transfer passengers and, in turn,
increase the chances of joint
ventures with other airlines, which
according to Korean Air would “spur
the growth” of the country’s domestic
aviation industry.
Korean Air was founded in 1969
while Asiana launched in 1988; they
field a fleet of 169 and 82 aircraft
respectively – both featuring the
Airbus A380-800.
(Photo Flickr Commons/Jun Seita)
Nautical adventures for SpiceJet
INDIAN LOW-COST firm, SpiceJet,
continues to diversify its operations
after it introduced seaplane rotations
on October 31.
The initial service, flown by wholly
owned subsidiary, Spice Shuttle, is
a single twice-daily link between
Ahmedabad and Kevadia in northwest
India. For the nautical services, Spice
Shuttle has so far acquired one de
Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin
Otter, 8Q-ISC (c/n 321), which is on lease
from Malé-based Maldivian.
Spice Shuttle has secured a further 18
seaplane routes – set to be launched
at a later date – under the country’s
UDAN scheme, which aims to boost
affordable and regional connectivity in
remote parts of India.
A SpiceJet statement explained that
“development and maintenance of
airstrips accompanied by basic airport
infrastructure facilities have continued
to be a big deterrent for providing
air connectivity to remote areas”. By
using seaplanes, its subsidiary can
“penetrate into untapped markets” by
providing connectivity via rivers, inland
waterways, lakes and dam reservoirs.
SpiceJet’s entry into seaplane
operations is one of its many firsts
this year. As this magazine went to
press, the low-cost carrier was due
to have started long-haul services to
London/Heathrow (see Airliner World,
December edition).
A ‘jumbo’ sale
IN A bid to raise much-needed cash,
Thai Airways International has put 34
aircraft up for sale. Most are widebody
jets, which encompass ten Boeing
747-400s and 12 777s (six each of the
-200ER and -300ER).
Within the offering, the flag carrier also
included aircraft types that it phased
out several years ago, comprising nine
A340s (a trio of -500s and six -600s)
along with a single 1993-vintage
A300B4, HS-TAR (c/n 681). Just two
14
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
of the 34 are narrowbodies, a pair
of Classic 737-400s, HS-TDF (c/n
26613) and HS-TDG (c/n 26614). The
jets, marketed in an “As-Is, Where-Is”
condition, could be acquired by their
potential new owners between Q1 and
Q2 of 2021.
The latest development comes
after the cash-strapped flag carrier
posted a first half-year loss of nearly
US$900m. This was compounded
further in November after it revealed
a strong loss of 21.5bn Thai baht
(US$701m) in its 2020 Q3 results.
Earlier in the year, the airline was
thrown a financial lifeline after the
Thai cabinet approved a reform
plan that would allow a business
reorganisation through the country’s
Central Bankruptcy Court (see Airliner
World, July edition). In September, the
court granted Thai Airways’ request
for its business restructure.
With the onset of coronavirus, Thai
and its subsidiaries’ passenger traffic
decreased by 97.8% during Q3, while
the average load factor slumped
to 34.9%. This is attributed to the
ongoing travel restrictions worldwide
which mean few foreign tourists
have entered Thailand for more than
six months. The airline’s pre-COVID
financial health was already shaky
after it confirmed a 12bn Thai baht
(US$396m) loss in 2019.
(Photo AirTeamImages.com/Tek)
News Review • Asia/Pacific
Premia ready to premiere
The maiden aircraft for South Korean low-cost start-up, Air Premia, was spotted on short final at Boeing’s Everett plant after a successful first flight on November 12. This
Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered Boeing 787-9, HL8387 (c/n 66407), is one of an eventual eight widebodies currently confirmed to join the firm. In 2019, bosses at the
carrier inked a deal for a trio of leased Dreamliners before making a further purchase of five 787s – worth US$1.4bn at list prices – in October the same year. According to
Reuters, Hong Kong, the United States and Vietnam have all been suggested as destinations to be served by Air Premia. AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/DIPANKAR BHAKTA
JAL fleet shake-up
TOKYO-BASED JAPAN Airlines
(JAL) has confirmed it will phase
out several examples of the Boeing
777 by 2023 due to the “temporary
demand downturn [caused by]
COVID-19”. The biggest casualty
from the fleet reduction strategy will
be the loss of all 13 examples of the
type used solely for domestic duties
– comprising nine of the three-class,
375-seat 777-200s, and four of the
two-class, 500-seat -300s.
Furthermore, bosses at the flag
carrier have stated that 11 -200ERs
used for international services are
also eyed for withdrawal by the end
of March – although an unspecified
number will be retained for domestic
duties, especially as the rescheduled
Olympic Games are due to take place.
Elsewhere, other types in the JAL
fleet are set to go as it plans to return
five leased 737-800s – out of an
inventory of 48 examples – to the
lessors by the first half of 2022.
Meanwhile, the biggest reduction
in the JAL fleet is expected to come
from the transfer of assets into its
newly created low-cost subsidiary,
ZIPAIR Tokyo.
The budget operator currently uses
a pair of 787-8 Dreamliners that it
obtained from its parent company
in October 2019 and January of the
following year.
(Photo Flickr Commons/BriYYZ)
COMAC’s
express delivery
China Express Airline’s first COMAC ARJ21-700 was pictured on November 10 at Chongqing’s Jiangbei Airport on the same day it was delivered to the carrier.
The 90-seat jet, B-650P (c/n 141), was built at COMAC’s Shanghai/Pudong facility and is equipped with General Electric CF34 powerplants. The maiden example
is scheduled to be joined by a further 49 ARJ21s over the next five years after the airline firmed an order with COMAC in October. In the same deal, it agreed to
take another 50 indigenous-built airframes of either more ARJ21s or the C919, although a decision has yet to be made. PHOTO: BCG554
in brief
The ANA Group – which consists of mainline
carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) and lowcost firm Peach Aviation – has stated
intentions to launch a third airline “around
fiscal 2022”. The yet-to-be-named start-up
is earmarked as a budget operator offering
medium-distance rotations for leisure
travellers to destinations in Southeast
Asia and Oceania using Boeing 787s in
a two-class, 300-seat layout. Elsewhere,
before the end of 2020, ANA outlined the
retirement of 35 aircraft, which includes
up to 22 777s.
The maiden Boeing 737-800 for Regional
Express Airlines (REX) was handed over to the
carrier on November 5. The ex-Virgin Australia
example, VH-VUF (c/n 34168), is the first of
six Boeing-built jets to be initially acquired
on lease. Currently, VH-VUF is without any
markings; however, REX had planned to
reveal a livery on the type by the end of
November. Since its acquisition, the aircraft
has performed multiple “training activities”
between Sydney-Melbourne in anticipation of
a proving flight for the Civil Aviation and Safety
Authority (CASA) scheduled for December
5. Bosses at REX anticipate fare-paying 737
services to begin from March 1.
Qantas celebrated its 100th birthday on
November 16. As part of the celebrations,
the world’s third oldest airline used its 100th
anniversary-liveried Boeing 787-9, VH-ZNJ
(c/n 66074) to perform a night-time flyby
over Sydney Harbour Bridge at 1,500ft to
simulate a blowing out of birthday candles
on a cake. This was achieved by lighting
up the bridge with more than 1,300 LED
tubes, 126 LED fixtures and 38 searchlights,
which projected two 213ft-tall candles on
to the structure’s pylons and which were
blown out as the Dreamliner flew over.
To complement the occasion, 60 historic
images were also projected on to the
bridge. (Photo Destination NSW/Qantas)
Taiwanese carrier STARLUX Airlines is
to serve three new destinations from
its Taipei base. At the time of writing,
a twice-weekly service to Bangkok/
Suvarnabhumi was to start in early December.
Two Japanese cities were due to follow
on December 15 and 16 with the launch of
Osaka/Kansai and Tokyo/Narita respectively
(also twice-weekly). STARLUX will use
its two-class, 188-seat Airbus A321neos
powered
by
CFM
International
LEAP-1A engines.
Bamboo Airways has increased its
inventory of Embraer E-jets after adding
two more examples to the fleet. The pair
of 118-seat E195s, SP-LNH (c/n 19000239)
and SP-LNI (c/n 19000240), are leased from
LOT Polish Airlines. They join two already
in-service examples that have been leased
from Denmark-based Great Dane Airlines,
OY-GDB (c/n 19000184) and OY-GDC
(c/n 19000204); both have previously
flown for Flybe as G-FBEL and G-FBEM,
respectively. The E-jets are mostly used on
Vietnamese domestic rotations.
www.key.aero
15
News Review • International
Maiden A321P2F delivered
THE FIRST Airbus A321P2F converted
freighter has been delivered to launch
operator, Qantas. The jet, VH-ULD
(c/n 835), was converted by Elbe
Flugzeugwerke (EFW), a joint venture
created by Airbus and ST Engineering.
The new P2F version is being leased to
Express Freighters Australia, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas
Freight, by asset manager Vallair.
Andreas Hermann, vice president
asset management at Airbus and
member of the EFW shareholder
committee, said: “We are very pleased
to see the A321P2F programme
entering service. The A321 is the
platform which, by design, will offer
the best economics, cargo capacity
and performance in the single-aisle
freighter segment going forward.
“For any asset owner, this will provide
an excellent opportunity to leverage
future growth and replacement waves,
underpinning the already great value
proposition of the A321 today.”
The aptly registered aircraft – ULD
being a unit load device – is a former
British Midland example that was
delivered to the Castle
Donington-based carrier on June 12,
1998. Since then, it has served with Air
2000, bmi British Midland, Turkey’s
Onur Air and Iraq-based Zagrosjet.
Airbus reports the type is the first in
its size category to offer containerised
loading in both the main (up to 14 full
positions) and lower deck (up to ten
locations). With a payload-range
capability to carry 30 tons over
2,300nm, the A321P2F is positioned
well for express domestic and regional
GE90 marks
25 years
THE GENERAL Electric GE90, which
powers many Boeing 777s, has
celebrated 25 years since entering
service on the type – it propelled a
British Airways flight between
London/Heathrow and Dubai on
November 17, 1995.
The firm said the powerplant has been
among the most reliable in the industry
with a dispatch rate of 99.97%. In July
2020, the engine family also surpassed
100 million flight hours.
Mike Kauffman, GE Aviation’s GE90
programme general manager, said:
“We are excited to celebrate another
GE90 milestone and would like to
congratulate everyone involved in
the engine’s success. We continue to
deliver these extremely reliable engines
and our dedicated product support
team will maintain the GE90 for many
years to come, providing maximum
value throughout its lifecycle.”
GE Aviation has delivered more than
2,800 GE90-94B and upgraded -115B
16
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
engines to 70 operators around the
world. The engine family powers all 777
models and is the exclusive powerplant
on the 777-300ER, -200LR, and 777F.
The turbofan held the world record
as the largest and most powerful jet
engine for 17 years at 127,900lbs of
thrust until the newly certified GE9X
emerged, achieved a new mark of
134,300lbs of thrust and is 15cm wider.
In September 2020, the GE9X was
certified by the US Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), which marked a
key milestone in its journey to power
the next-generation 777X family. The
GE9X test engines completed just
under 5,000 hours and 8,000 cycles
for certification.
According to GE, the powerplant is
designed to achieve 10% lower specific
fuel consumption (SFC) compared with
the GE90-115B and 5% better SFC than
other engines in its class.
(Photo AirTeamImages.com/
Adam Tetzlaff)
operations. Gone are the passenger
windows and exits, instead the conversion
features a large main cargo door which
is hydraulically actuated and electrically
locked, a ‘Class-E’ main-deck cargo
compartment with full rigid 9g barrier
for protection between crew and cargo,
and a redefined flight deck that includes
supernumerary seats.
(Photo Victor Pody)
Airbus Deliveries
Airbus handed over the first of three A321LRs ordered by Scandinavian Airlines on October 15.
The jet flew from the European aerospace giant's Hamburg/Finkenwerder plant to Stockholm/Arlanda
on delivery using a 10% blend of sustainable jet fuel AIRBUS
Airbus delivered the following aircraft in October:
A220-100
7
Delta Air Lines (7)
A220-300 5
Air Canada; Delta Air Lines (4)
A320ceo
1
Chengdu Airlines
AerCap (HK Express); Aviation Capital Group (Viva Air Colombia); Aviation Capital Group
(Viva Air); CALC (SaudiGulf Airlines); GECAS (AirAsia Malaysia); GECAS (Vistara); IndiGo;
A320neo
22 Lufthansa; Peach; Pegasus Airlines (5); Private Customer; Qingdao Airlines; Shenzen
Airlines; SMBC Aviation Capital; SMBC Aviation Capital (Juneyao Airlines); Spirit Airlines
(2); Wizz Air Hungary
A321ceo
1
Delta Air Lines
AerCap; Air Lease Corporation (Azores Airlines); Air Lease Corporation (Scandinavian
Airlines); Air Lease Corporation (Titan Airways); American Airlines (3); BOC Aviation (TAP
A321neo
19 Air Portugal); GECAS; GECAS (STARLUX Airlines); ICBC (China Southern Airlines); ICBC
(Chongqing Airlines); IndiGo; JetBlue Airways; Middle East Airlines; Turkish Airlines (2);
Viva Aerobus; Wizz Air Hungary
A330-800 2
Kuwait Airways (2)
A330-900 1
Air Lease Corporation (Delta Air Lines)
A350-900 8
Cathay Pacific; Lufthansa; Singapore Airlines (4); Turkish Airlines (2)
A350-1000 4
British Airways; Qatar Airways (3)
A380-800 1
All Nippon Airlines
Total
71
Boeing Deliveries
British Airways received the first of four Boeing 777-300ERs it ordered at the 2018 Farnborough
International Airshow at the start of October AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/DIPANKAR BHAKTA
Boeing delivered the following aircraft in October:
747-8F
1
UPS
767-300F 2
UPS (2)
777F
3
China Cargo Airlines (2); DHL
777-300ER 1
British Airways
787-8
1
American Airlines
787-9
1
Ethiopian Airlines
787-10
2
Etihad Airways; Saudi Arabian Airlines
Total
11
News Review • International
FAA un-grounds Boeing 737 MAX
THE US Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) has cleared the Boeing 737 MAX
to fly again, lifting a grounding order
that was put in place more than 20
months ago after two fatal crashes
involving the type. Steve Dickson, the
regulator’s administrator, signed an
order paving the way for the embattled
jet to return to commercial service.
“The design and certification of this
aircraft included an unprecedented
level of collaborative and independent
reviews by aviation authorities around
the world,” an FAA statement said.
“Those regulators have indicated that
Boeing’s design changes, together
with the changes to crew procedures
and training enhancements, will give
them the confidence to validate the
aircraft as safe to fly in their respective
countries and regions.”
The narrowbody was grounded
worldwide following the
implementation of an order issued by
the FAA on March 13, 2019. Two fatal
crashes of the jet type had occurred
within the preceding five months – Lion
Air Flight 610 followed by Ethiopian
Airlines Flight 302 – in which a total of
346 people lost their lives.
Following investigations, the
jet’s Manoeuvring Characteristics
Augmentation System (MCAS), a
piece of technology designed to
mimic pitching behaviour of previous
generation examples, was found to be
a contributing factor in both accidents,
according to preliminary reports.
“We will never forget the lives lost in
the two tragic accidents that led to the
decision to suspend operations,” said
David Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive
officer. “These events and the lessons
we have learned as a result have
reshaped our company and further
focused our attention on our core
values of safety, quality and integrity.”
An Airworthiness Directive (AD) issued
by the FAA spells out the requirements
that must be met before US carriers
can resume service, including
installing software enhancements,
completing wire separation
modifications, conducting pilot
training and accomplishing thorough
de-preservation activities that will
ensure the jets are ready for service.
Stan Deal, president and chief
executive officer of Boeing Commercial
Airplanes, commented: “The FAA’s
directive is an important milestone.
“We will continue to work with
regulators around the world and our
customers to return the airplane back
into service worldwide.”
While this action by the FAA will allow
US-based airlines to resume operations,
international carriers will need to wait
for their respective national regulators
to follow suit. Approval from the
European Union Aviation Safety Agency
(EASA) is expected to happen soon, but
it is not known when others will follow.
Bringing the 737 MAX back into service
will be a mammoth task that will not
happen overnight.
Those operators that have already
taken delivery of jets will be required
to complete maintenance and
modification works, while updated crew
training will need completing.
As for the undelivered airframes,
of which there are more than 400,
Boeing lost its authority to self-issue
airworthiness and export certificates
when the FAA revoked its permission
in November last year. Instead, the
regulator plans to conduct in-person
individual inspections on all the
airframes, which could take more than a
year to complete.
(Photo Boeing)
​Mitsubishi pauses SpaceJet programme
TOKYO-BASED MITSUBISHI Heavy
Industries (MHI) is set to “pause” the
development of its regional aircraft
programme, SpaceJet, as it continues
to deal with the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic across the rest of
its multi-sector business.
In its medium-term business plan,
the company said that given the
current development status and
market conditions, it had “no choice
but to temporarily pause the majority
of SpaceJet activities”, but would
continue with its type certification
efforts and “assess a possible
[programme] restart”.
Known previously as the Mitsubishi
Regional Jet (MRJ), the 70-90-seat
aircraft is the first airliner to be
domestically designed and produced
in Japan since the 1960s.
The narrowbody – which first flew
in November 2015 – was supposed
to enter service in 2013, but repeated
delays have pushed deliveries back
to 2022.
The firm says that pausing the
programme will help it lower its costs
by 120 billion yen (£890m). After
receiving a 50% budget cut in May
2020, the programme is expected to
now see a further reduction for the
full-year 2021, with MHI assigning
just 20 billion yen (£148m). This latest
financial plan is a 94% decrease from
2018’s allocation, which stood at 370
billion yen (£2.74bn).
MHI increased its presence in the
commercial aviation market when it
purchased the CRJ programme from
Bombardier in June last year.
For approximately £425m, the
Japanese conglomerate acquired the
maintenance, support, refurbishment,
marketing and sale activities for
the CRJ Series aircraft, along with
subsequent type certificates.
The company’s business plan states
it wants to “secure synergies” across
its commercial aviation division
including the sharing of human
resources and “know-how”.
MHI expects a market recovery to
occur from around 2024 and will
increase its production efficiency
and drive forward new technology
development to meet the future
needs of its aircraft programmes.
(Photo Aviation Image Network/
Baoluo)
www.key.aero
17
News Review • Business Aviation
Gulfstream bolsters G700 test fleet
THREE WEEKS after the maiden flight
of the fourth Gulfstream G700 test
aircraft (see Airliner World, December
edition), the US-based company’s
fifth example took to the skies on
October 23.
The aircraft, N703GD (c/n 87007),
departed Savannah, Georgia on its
maiden sortie, which lasted three
hours and eight minutes and reached
an altitude of 48,000ft and a top
speed of Mach 0.935. The fifth test
airframe will predominantly be utilised
for avionics testing during the G700
flight test campaign.
Commenting on the latest milestone,
Mark Burns, Gulfstream Aerospace
president, said: “The G700 flight test
programme is progressing very well.
We are steadily increasing flights,
[sortie] hours and the completion of
numerous company tests.”
(Photo Gulfstream)
BUSINESS AVIATION NEWS BY NIGEL PITTAWAY
An Embraer and Porsche Duet
AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURER Embraer
has teamed up with car maker Porsche
to create the Duet – a limited-edition
Phenom 300E light executive jet
and Porsche 911 Turbo S pairing.
Announced on November 5, there will
be just ten Duet pairings.
Michael Amalfitano, president and
CEO of Embraer Executive Jets,
said: “Duet is an exclusive package
developed in a unique design
collaboration with Porsche.”
The exclusive collaboration logo is
embossed on the seat headrests in
the Phenom’s cabin and debossed
(downfaced) on the Porsche’s
headrests. The badge will also feature
on the Phenom’s side ledge, speaker
grills and near the main entry door.
Both the aircraft and the car will share
the same exterior paint pallet and
general scheme, while the seats in each
‘vehicle’ are to be patterned after those
of the 911 Turbo S.
Other similarities will result in the
Porsche’s steering wheel being finished
in a unique combination of colours to
match the Phenom 300E’s control yoke.
The Duet Phenom 300E can only be
purchased in tandem with the
911 Turbo S and customers will
also receive a custom luggage set,
comprising a pilot’s bag and two
weekenders, along with a specialedition Porsche Design 1919 Globe
timer UTC titanium-case watch,
inspired by the aircraft’s flight deck.
(Photo Embraer)
G500 and G600 enhanced performance
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE
announced enhanced performance
figures for its G500 and G600
business aircraft on October 29.
The company said the increased
range of both aircraft had been
demonstrated through real-time
operations and applies to the highspeed cruise (Mach 0.90) and long18
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
range (Mach 0.85) portions of flight.
The G500 is now capable of flying
5,300nm at Mach 0.85 and 4,500nm
at Mach 0.90. Meanwhile, the larger
G600 now has a range of 6,600nm at
M0.85 and 5,600nm at M0.90.
In addition to the increased range,
the basic operating weight of the
G600 has been reduced by 570lbs,
bringing full-fuel payload capability
to 2,600lbs.
Mark Burns, Gulfstream Aerospace
president, said: “What’s exciting
for our existing customers is that
these improvements already exist
on their in-service aircraft with no
modifications required.”
(Photo Gulfstream)
Embraer
reports Q3
deliveries
EMBRAER DELIVERED a total of 21
business jets in the third quarter of
the year, the company announced
on October 20. This comprised: 19
light (a trio of Phenom 100s and 16
Phenom 300s) and a pair of large
Praetor 500 aircraft.
The latest deliveries bring the
total for 2020 to 43 airframes
by the end of September, which
consisted of 33 light jets (five
Phenom 100s and 28 Phenom
300s) and ten large examples
(four Praetor 500s, five Praetor
600s and a single Legacy 650).
In a statement, the Brazilian
manufacturer said: “Embraer’s
deliveries in 2020 were negatively
impacted principally due to the
COVID-19 pandemic that continues
to affect the world, especially
commercial air travel. The company
expects fourth quarter [2020]
deliveries to continue to improve
relative to the previous three
quarters of the year, particularly
in the executive jets segment
which normally has a high level of
seasonality, with a large portion
of annual deliveries taking place
[during Q4].”
Highlights during the third quarter
of the year in the light jet market
segment include the launch of
the Phenom 300MED, a medical
evacuation variant of the successful
type. Additionally, there was the
delivery of the first Phenom 300E with
the Bossa Nova interior to Joe Howley,
co-founder of Patient Airlift Services.
Embraer also marked its 250th
business jet delivery in the period,
with the handover of a Phenom
100EV and Phenom 300E to
separate customers in Brazil.
Orbx_FP.indd 1
23/11/2020 14:31:30
The Baron’s
2021 predictions
We’ve enlisted our good friend Baron Felix von Tempelhof to highlight some topics to
keep on your radar for the year ahead…
T
his time last year, the
ever-faithful Airliner
World editorial team put
their heads together to
have a guess at what might
happen in 2020. What could the
future hold for the industry?
Alas, even our wildest scenario
didn’t include a global COVID19 pandemic and the subsequent
paralysis of almost all international
commercial flight.
What amateurs we are!
Feeling rather sheepish after our
lucklustre forecasting, we were in two
minds as to whether we should risk
making another faux pas. Thankfully,
Baron Felix von Tempelhof – a good
friend of the magazine and loyal
subscriber – has just completed a
20
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
increasingly, fringe operators with
only a handful in the fleet will view
the double-decker as a gas-guzzling
extravagance that can no longer be
justified. Even Portuguese charter
specialist Hi Fly is handing back the
keys to its sole example, disappointing
those who thought the super jumbo
could enjoy a second surge in
demand in the wet-lease sector.
trip in his magical time machine and
suggests the following areas are well
worth watching in 2021…
Double-deckers ditched
The Baron predicts: When I’m not
travelling the world in the comfort
of my diamond-encrusted hot air
balloon, I love to fly the Airbus A380.
Its spacious cabin, those enormous
Broughton-built wings and of course
the unadulterated joy of a proper
walk-up bar leaves its competitors a
distant second.
Unfortunately, killjoy accountants
don’t seem to agree, and I fear 2019
will be remembered as the year we
reached ‘peak-A380’. While the likes
of Emirates are far too invested in
the programme to change strategy,
The Flybe phoenix
What could 2021
bring to the world
of commercial aviation?
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
JAVIER GUERRERO
The Baron predicts: Although it didn’t
come as a complete surprise, much
of the fallout of the Flybe collapse was
absorbed by the wider coronavirus
crisis, which reached a dizzying
crescendo in late March. Were it not
for the pandemic and associated
global lockdowns grabbing the
ABOVE • Wizz Air UK now has
three bases in Great Britain
WIZZ AIR
ABOVE LEFT • The Hi
Fly Airbus A380 at the
Paris Air Show in 2019
AIRBUS
Flybe Dash 8-400, G-ECOH
(c/n 4221), at Dublin
AVIATION IMAGE NETWORK/
BAILEY
headlines, it’s likely the loss of Flybe
would have had a far greater impact
on the travelling public. I reckon
there are some people out there who
missed the news completely and will
be rather bemused when they try to
log onto Flybe.com for their annual
jaunt to Exeter.
For 2021, anticipation is growing
that the Flybe phoenix will rise again,
relaunching the battered but well
known brand and leveraging the
post-COVID travel surge.
With the Gatwick departure board
looking sparse, could a new-look
Flybe swoop in on some bargain
slots? Throw in a tasty cut-price order
for some Airbus A220s or perhaps the
Embraer E2 and rekindle the dozens
of previous interline agreements
with global carriers and you’ve
the foundation for a future-facing,
efficient regional airline. Simples.
Domestic Wizz kid
The Baron predicts: While no
scheduled passenger carrier has
been untouched by the events of
2020, Wizz Air seems to have taken
a more bullish approach than most.
Could a commercial
partnership see the
development of a
new Embraer turboprop?
EMBRAER
As others have been in retreat, the
Budapest-based budget operator has
actually extended its footprint across
Europe. Its UK-registered subsidiary,
the aptly named Wizz Air UK, recently
announced it is launching two new
British bases at Doncaster/Sheffield
and London/Gatwick, complementing
its original London/Luton home.
With Flybe’s new owners yet to
re-launch operations, Ryanair
having canned almost all of its
Anglo-Scottish routes and British
Airways trimming back capacity,
could Wizz enter the UK domestic
scene? It has already shocked the
usually unflappable Scandinavians
by announcing three intra-Norway
routes from Oslo, which some see as a
sign of things to come. With airports
desperate for business and rivals on
the back foot, Wizz is one to watch.
Foreign financing
The Baron predicts: If you thought
summer 2020 was tough on
airlines, just wait until you see
“While this next-generation aircraft won’t be flying
in 2021, I recommend keeping an eye on the skies
above São José dos Campos in the years ahead.”
www.key.aero
21
winter 2020/21. Many carriers in
the Northern Hemisphere bank on
bumper yields and peak-time (read:
opportunist) pricing to cushion leaner
winter months when travel demand
is typically lower. With most of 2020 a
write-off, cash reserves are dwindling
for some household names. Amid
these straitened times, keep an eye
out for wealthy investors snapping
up shareholdings in more vulnerable
firms at prices which would’ve been
unthinkable a year ago. This could
be solidifying existing stock or
venturing into entirely new territory.
Hungry for success
The Baron predicts: Believe it or not,
when I’m not tucking into a poached
unicorn egg, I do occasionally pop
down to the so-called ‘High Street’
(a popular thoroughfare where the
townsfolk buy and sell goods) and
sample the local delicacies. From
Northern favourite Greggs to the
oh-la-la superfood delights of Pret a
Manger, it seems there is something
for everyone. This will not be lost
on the big wigs at British Airways,
who are on the hunt for a new suitor
after the buy-on-board catering
partnership with Marks and Spencer
ended in 2020. Details are sketchy;
BA said the incoming supplier is a
“great British brand that customers
have told us they love”. This just about
keeps Greggs in the running, but also
introduces the possibility of Waitrose,
Costa Coffee, Leon or even Boots
picking up the baton. But I think Pret
a Manger best matches the brief.
BA announced its
original partnership with
Marks and Spencer in 2016
BRITISH AIRWAYS
double its research and development
efforts towards a next-generation
turboprop? With ATR capturing the
vast majority of the new-build market,
and the Dash 8 soaking up the
overspill, there is arguably room for a
disruptive entrant to the sector.
Building on Embraer’s humble
origins with the pioneering
Bandeirante twin-turboprop, I think
there is real appetite for re-asserting
dominance if the right commercial
partners can be found.
The firm sent the rumour mill
into overdrive last October when it
tweeted a conceptual rendering of
a possible turboprop aircraft which
resembled an updated Brasilia.
While it won’t be flying in 2021, I
recommend keeping an eye on the
skies above São José dos Campos in
the years ahead.
Talking turboprops
The Baron predicts: Now that the
Boeing/Embraer deal is off the table,
will the Brazilian manufacturer
Have your say!
What are your predictions for the
year ahead? Join the debate on
Key.Aero, drop us an email via
airlinerworld@keypublishing.com
or follow us on Twitter
and Facebook
22
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Could Aer Lingus soon be
shuttling Mancunians across
the Atlantic? AER LINGUS
Irish ambitions
The Baron predicts: It’s been more
than a decade since British Airways
operated scheduled transatlantic
services from anywhere in the UK
outside London. The carrier’s final
long-haul rotation from Manchester
was BA1503, which touched down
from New York/JFK in October 2008.
Since then, BA’s nemesis Virgin
Atlantic has boosted its presence in
the northwest, using its partnership
with Delta Air Lines to help get bums
on seats at the right price.
Despite the coronavirus trimming
back all but the most essential of
UK-US travel, I predict that IAG, the
owner of British Airways, will be back
at Manchester flying transatlantic in
2021. The biggest surprise?
Mancunians won’t be flying with the
British flag carrier to the United
States, but IAG bedfellow Aer Lingus.
Utilising the single-aisle Airbus
A321LR for mid-haul crowd-pleasers
such as Boston, and a widebody
A330-300 for the likes of Orlando, this
will be a major boost to competition
using the northern gateway.
New books from The Airline Boutique
Tickets Please!
a colourful collection of vintage
tickets bring a bygone age of
travel and design back to life
Interflug
the story of communist East
Germany’s airline, on the front
lines of the Cold War
Air747
legendary vlogger Sam Chui and
historian Charles Kennedy pay tribute
to the Queen Of The Skies
New website and new logistics – shipping now!
www.theairlineboutique.co.uk
023_ALW_JAN21_ad.indd 1
Hotels Of Pyongyang
the unique architecture of the
hotels in North Korea’s capital
24/11/2020 09:16:00
The Brandenburg w
T
hink engineering and
efficiency, think Germany,
right? Well, perhaps not
always. The Brandenburg
story began in 1989
following the fall of the Berlin Wall,
with plans to build one major airport
serving the city. The unified German
government realised a new large
commercial airport would be needed
to cement Berlin’s position on the
world stage and the three existing
facilities, Tempelhof, Tegel and
Schönefeld, would soon be outdated.
In 1991 Berlin and Brandenburg
24
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
states and the Federal Republic of
Germany formed Flughafen Berlin
Brandenburg GmbH (BBF) to oversee
design and construction. A 1993
study assessed suitable locations,
with noise and air pollution, existing
infrastructure and proximity to the
city being key factors. Although
some sites were preferable in terms
of noise pollution and levels of social
disruption, two and a half years
later an area around Schönefeld was
chosen. Its location near the city as
well as existing airport infrastructure
– its current runway and terminal
OPPOSITE • The airport's
original opening date
was set for October 30,
2011 FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
The terminal building is
spread across six floors
and located between two
parallel runways which
are more than 6,200ft
apart and can therefore be
operated separately
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
Berlin’s brand new,
multi-billion-euro
Brandenburg airport is
finally handling flights,
but seemingly endless
setbacks threatened the
entire plan. Chris Croot
examines the complex
story of a project that ran
nearly a decade late and
€5bn over budget
g wait
would be incorporated into the design
of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)
– made it the popular choice.
Towards the decade’s end, a bid
to privatise BER’s construction,
ownership and operation was
launched, aimed at reducing the
financial burden on the German
taxpayer. Two consortia, one led by
construction company Hochtief and
the other by real estate management
firm IVG, submitted bids with the
former initially announced as the
winner in March 1999. This would put
in motion the first of many legal
www.key.aero
25
battles, controversies and debacles to
overshadow the birth of BER.
IVG threatened to take legal action
over the contract decision, citing bias
in favour of Hochtief. BBF conducted
a review into the process and
determined some selection stages did
lean favourably toward them and the
competition was re-run, excluding
Hochtief. Naturally, the firm contested
the decision legally and just a few
months later Brandenburg regional
court overruled BBF granting it right
to submit another bid. In an effort
to secure a contract win, IVG and
Hochtief elected to work together,
but concerns surrounding the
proposed cost (significantly lower
than the original independent offers
made by IVG and Hochtief) stalled
negotiations. In 2003 BBF's board
deemed the bid unworkable and voted
to scrap plans for privatisation.
Instead, they hoped to attract
26
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
ABOVE • The Berlin Tegel
Boulevard built in 1979 is
still easily recognisable
today FLUGHAFEN BERLIN
BRANDENBURG (FBB)
ABOVE RIGHT • Interflug was
at the heart of civilian air
travel in the former German
Democratic Republic.
The airline had its base
at Schönefeld Airport
FBB
BELOW • More than 30
years in the planning
and execution, Berlin
Brandenburg Airport
has finally opened
its doors to passengers
FBB
a buyer to take over operation of
the airport once construction was
completed. With BER set to remain
under public ownership for the
foreseeable future and pressure to
break ground mounting, BBF merged
with two subsidiaries tasked with
new airport development to form
Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg (FBB).
Before construction work began,
residents in the expansion area
would need to be relocated and
archaeological surveys completed.
Those living in Diepensee and
Selchow were moved at an
estimated cost of €32.7m and
€81.8m to new houses and flats in
Königs Wusterhausen and Ziethen.
According to the official BER website,
this process was completed by 2004
in time for the Brandenburg State
Ministry for Infrastructure and
Agriculture to grant approval for
expansion work at Schönefeld to start.
A chorus of disapproval
The approval sparked more
controversy and another legal
battle, this time from residents who
contested the increase in noise and
air pollution. Some 4,000 complaints
were submitted by locals, generating
the largest legal challenge ever
handled by Germany’s Federal
Administrative Court in Leipzig.
In 2005 the court made a ruling
and put a halt to construction, an
unprecedented step in a major
infrastructure project. A final ruling
in March 2006, granted building
permission but stipulated the total
number of people living under BER’s
approach should be less than the
other three Berlin airports.
In September 2006 work finally
began,15 years after the project was
initially conceived. An opening date
of October 30, 2011 was proposed, the
first of 11 revised dates which would
Pan American Airways
connected former West
Berlin to many destinations
in Western Europe, as well
as directly to New York/JFK
for several years FBB
follow over the next nine years.
The initial building phase included
the construction of roads and the
concrete mixing plant along with
the issuing of tenders for building
the northern runway, taxiways, and
connections. One of the airport’s
major transportation links to the city
is an underground railway station,
work on which began in early 2007. In
August, the contract for construction
of the new southern runway and
aprons was awarded to EUROVIA who
started work the following month.
In November, the BER-Infotower
opened, a temporary 105ft
observation tower giving members
of the public an elevated view of the
airport construction site.
No major airport is complete
without at least one passenger
building and so in 2008 work started
on BER’s Terminal 1. Nowadays, if
there is one thing which symbolises
the journey through a modern airport
it is shopping. Sales can account
for as much as 50% of a facility’s
profits, so designing and beginning
construction on an international
transit hub without incorporating
substantial retail facilities sounds
ill-advised, but that is exactly what
happened at BER. The building’s
architect, Meinhard von Gerkan, has
a strong dislike of airport shopping
and even wrote about passengers
“dragging around unwanted bottles of
whisky like a beggar”.
The structure was expanded by
more than 50% to 3.6 million sq ft
including an originally unplanned
second floor, to facilitate a shopping
concourse. Genia Kostka of the
Berlin Hertie School of Governance
compared making such significant
changes to the design to “fixing an
airplane while it was flying”.
A lack of shops was not the only
Berlin Brandenburg spans
an area of 1,470 hectares,
which is equivalent to
around 2,000 football
pitches FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
significant oversight to hinder
construction; while airbridges are
commonplace at major airports, they
are an expense low-cost carriers are
keen to avoid. When BER was first
envisaged, low-cost airlines were in
their infancy and designers believed
the airport would become a major
hub for legacy operators such as
Lufthansa. The airport’s design failed
to keep up with the times, resulting
in a terminal with boarding gates
equipped with airbridges only. The
move towards ‘no-frills’ flights gives
carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet
a large amount of sway with airports
and BER is no exception. To cater
to the demands of low-cost carriers
a new pier was planned with no
airbridges and direct apron access for
boarding and coaching.
Another boarding gate delay
stemmed from the unergonomic
way in which international
passengers accessed air bridges.
They would have to take stairs or
lifts to the gate rendering them
unusable for domestic/Schengen
travellers; as such only 25 gates were
available solely for international
passengers. A significant re-design
of this was required, resulting in
the introduction of double-storey
air bridges, smoothing the journey
for international passengers and
increasing the number of gates usable
by these types of flights to 39.
Reluctant to give up on large aircraft
operations at BER, politicians
www.key.aero
27
overseeing construction insisted
more gates be built to accommodate
the Airbus A380. According to
some reports, newly built terminal
walls were demolished to facilitate
these additions. The European
manufacturer announced cessation
of A380 production in February
2019, more than a year before BER’s
latest planned opening date. With
the current significant downturn in
commercial aviation and many A380
operators electing to reduce or even
retire their aircraft this may prove
another costly error, particularly given
Berlin’s meagre long-haul links, even
before the onset of COVID-19.
Resurfacing and lengthening of
Schönefeld’s runway also began
in 2008; the extension to 11,800ft
would allow both of BER’s runways
to handle the largest aircraft. Other
major infrastructural events in 2008
included finishing the first stage of
the airport’s train station and opening
of the A113 motorway connection.
The next major construction
milestones were topping out
ceremonies for the new 236ft air
traffic control tower in 2009 and the
terminal building in May 2010.
With work complete on the exterior
of the building, interior fittings and
wirings could be installed, but once
again the project was to hit another
iceberg. Just one month after these
celebrations, contractor IGK-IGR
Ingenieurgesellschaft Kruck filed for
28
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
The terminal has 16 jetways
on the main pier and a
further nine on the south
pier FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
During testing, volunteers
put all aspects of the
airports baggage handling
process, from start to
finish, through its paces
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
bankruptcy, pushing the estimated
completion date back to June 3, 2012.
Construction and outfitting
continued in 2011. On October 30
the railway station was officially
completed. Now open, passengers
can reach the city centre in around
half an hour via various connections.
Before new airports open, testing
of the terminal and its facilities are
undertaken to ensure everything
works. BER’s six-month trial period
began on November 24, 2011
during which as many as 12,000
volunteers, using 15,000 pieces
of luggage, simulated the airport
journey from check in, security and
boarding through to baggage reclaim.
Extensive testing of the automated
luggage processing system included
high-volume, night-time operations
as well as emergency contingencies.
The trial period also gave airport
staff the opportunity to familiarise
with their new settings and
eliminate any operational snags.
While testing the check-in process
it became apparent the check-in
desks were not able to process the
60 passengers per hour they were
designed to. Until the failings could
be rectified it was proposed tents
could be erected outside the terminal
building; German airlines Lufthansa
and Air Berlin would get use of the
permanent desks while assumedly
low-cost carriers would be given the
temporary facilities.
Trial by fire
After a devastating blaze ripped
through Düsseldorf Airport’s terminal
in 1996, killing 17, it was of paramount
importance to BER’s designers and
planners such an event couldn’t
happen again.
Trials also made it clear there had
been gross failings with design
and integration of the BER’s fire
suppression system. During tests,
the management system crashed;
alarms failed to activate, others
signalled fires in the wrong part of the
airport. It transpired that the 55 miles
of wiring for the fire management
and suppression system had been
laid incorrectly, worryingly with
high-voltage power lines running
alongside data and heating cables.
Furthermore, smoke evacuation
canals designed to draw smoke down
into the floor of the building and
replace it with fresh air failed to fulfil
their role thanks in part to a failure
to factor in that smoke rises in a fire.
With fault rectification threatening
to delay BER’s grand opening,
Rainer Schwarz FBB’s CEO formed
an emergency task force to find a
solution. Their suggestion, according
to a very unimpressed Stephan Loge
(commissioner of Dahme-Spreewald
County who held the authority to
issue the airport’s licence to operate),
was to have “800 people wearing
orange vests, sitting on camping
stools, holding Thermoses filled with
coffee and shouting into their cell
phones, ‘Open the fire door’”. This
idea was widely condemned and Loge
refused to issue an operating licence.
Once again, BER’s opening would
be delayed. It emerged in 2014 that
the chief planner for the airport’s fire
suppression system, Alfredo di Mauro,
was not a qualified engineer but in
fact an engineering draftsman. He
admitted to the German news agency,
dpa, that he “didn’t contradict” FBB’s
higher management’s belief he was
fully qualified civil engineer. It was
a mistaken identity that would cost
millions of euros to fix.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport
carries the byname of
Willy Brandt, a German
politician and statesman
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
At 240ft, Berlin
Brandenburg's air traffic
control tower is the
third highest in Germany
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
The opening date slips
With the June 2012 opening now
starting to look optimistic, on May 8
FBB postponed it to March 2013.
Further construction delays, along
with safety concerns surrounding
the fire and evacuation system were
primary causes. Tegel and Schönefeld
were planned to operate their final
flights on June 2 and BER would open
on June 3. Some ramp equipment
had already been transported over
to the new facility, with remaining
vital pieces transferring the night of
the closures. Delayed opening meant
much of this equipment had to be
returned to its airport of origin. In
June it was revealed to the public
that soundproofing of flats near
the airport had not been done to a
satisfactory standard and would need
to be replaced. The cost would be
between €500m and €600m, almost
three times the planned spend.
September saw more postponement
until October 27, 2013, a target that
would inevitably be missed. In
January 2013 FBB announced a date
of sometime in 2014.
A shake-up of its management and
leadership in January and March
2013 led to the replacement of Rainer
Schwarz as CEO and the resignation
of the supervisory board’s chairman
Klaus Wowereit. In 2014, the airport’s
former technical director, Jochen
Grossmann, was found guilty of
corruption after accepting bribes
from a potential contractor for work
on the airport.
The year of 2014 came and went
with no official mention of an
opening date. Hartmut Medhorn,
FBB’s new CEO said it was unlikely
BER would open before 2016. The
year did bring to light more structural
failings; an air ducting system had
to be replaced, calling for miles of
additional cabling, while the
back-up generator providing power
to the sprinkler system failed to
www.key.aero
29
produce enough electricity to operate
them. By year end the airport’s
opening had slipped to late 2017.
Hopes of significant progress during
2015 were dashed when Imtech,
the company behind the airport’s
troublesome fire suppression system,
filed for bankruptcy. This put the 2017
opening in doubt, scepticism which
was confirmed when construction
was halted in September due to fears
the terminal’s roof was about to
collapse. Work was paused for two
weeks while repairs were conducted,
along with replacement of fire
containment walls which failed to
meet safety standards.
Issues with the suppression system
continued to plague BER well into
2016. The railway station required
significant reworking to ensure any
trains moving through wouldn’t
draw smoke into it, but FBB failed
to get local state certification for the
modifications. It was eight months
before the work could finally begin.
The Berlin Tegel site is slated
for redevelopment and
will be used for residential
and business purposes
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
Until its collapse in
2017, airberlin had
planned to move its
operations from Tegel to
Brandenburg to become the
airport's largest carrier
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
Smoke alarm
Other snags which began to appear
in 2016 included thousands of
light switches and smoke detectors
disappearing before installation,
motors for fire doors failing to operate
at summer temperatures and doors
being incorrectly numbered. Opening
was back to March 2018. It was also
announced Terminal 2, the location
of the airport’s low-cost carriers, may
not open until well in 2020.
Daniel Abbou, the company’s press
spokesman, was dismissed after
giving a candid interview in which
he revealed the airport had wasted
billions of euros on construction
oversights and mismanagement.
On November 23, 2017, exactly 2,000
days after the original 2012 opening
date, a report by German technical
standards regulator TÜV found fire
safety issues were still evident and
30
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has
added to the airport's woes
by causing traffic figures to
drop by nearly 100% at the
height of the pandemic
FBB/GÜNTER WICKER
opening would be delayed again
until 2021. With spending on the
airport now in excess of €5bn, it was
imperative FBB acted. In autumn
2017, FBB declared the airport would
open at the end of 2020 and they were
resolute in meeting this target.
What sort of airport BER would
be when it opened was yet another
headache for planners. Airberlin,
the airport’s biggest tenant filed for
bankruptcy in October 2017 and with
it went the only airline planning
to use BER as a connecting hub.
Although Lufthansa agreed to take
over some of the now-vacant routes,
it would not make BER a major hub.
Questions were raised why Berlin
would need such a large airport
further outside the city, forcing
residents to make lengthy journeys
to flights. While it is not uncommon
for a city’s major airport to be far from
the centre, they tend to be ones that
serve as hubs with thousands of daily
transit passengers. Calls came for BER
to serve as a point-to-point airport
and Tegel to become a business
traveller-focused airport.
From 2018-2019, 70% of the
11,000 technical snags were ironed
out. These included major wiring
issues (ongoing since 2012) and
enhancements to the fire suppression
system to cater for now greater
passenger volume in the terminal.
At the same time, the sand-lime brick
used in BER’s foundations lacked the
structural strength to support the
weight of the buildings and much
of it had to be replaced.
Work on Terminal 2 was finished
in a record ten months, but plans
to halve the €200m cost were less
successful. The building’s foundations
had to be partly rebuilt for installation
of technical systems and again
wiring issues reared their ugly head.
The 2020 opening was looming
but with trade unions threatening
industrial action and TÜV still
insisting 5,000 issues were yet to be
rectified, delay looked likely again.
However, swift work and a successful
re-run of passenger trials meant
things were finally starting to look
up. TÜV approved modifications
to fire and safety systems and
construction work finally concluded
on May 15. Later that month
Terminal 1 has an annual
capacity of 25m passengers
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
MARKUS MAINKA
authorities awarded BER its operating
licence, giving the green light to open
on October 31.
The global events at the time of
the opening could not have been
predicted and it’s unclear how the
pandemic will affect BER. The fall
in passenger numbers will have a
significant impact on revenue created
by the airport and, with nearly €7bn
to recoup, a traffic rebound can’t
come soon enough. But after nearly a
decade of delays, one thing is finally
certain, Berlin Brandenburg Airport
is open for business.
www.key.aero
31
Picking up
B
ritain’s internal air travel
market encountered
an almighty storm in
2020. Warning signs
started flickering on the
dashboards of airline executives
just weeks into the new year, when
disruption caused by an escalating
coronavirus epidemic turned into a
pandemic that triggered the biggest
shake-up the industry had ever seen.
But it was by no means the only jolt
in the 12 months that have radically
redefined the sector. The collapse
of Flybe was the single biggest
other shock, but an ongoing
debate about the efficacy of
air passenger duty as well as
the harsh economic realities of
operating routes between secondary
and tertiary airports also featured.
“Brutally hard” was how one of more
than half a dozen leading aviation
executives described the market in
interviews for Airliner World, at the
beginning of a winter season that
looked to be no less challenging.
However, amid the gloom
of route closures and
declining passenger
numbers, there have been success
stories: most notably, the rise of
smaller regional carriers that are
proving themselves to be vital
lifelines for the islands and other
more remote corners of the UK.
So how much has the country’s
domestic market changed in the
last year? In October 2019, there
were 187 domestic routes
operated around the UK.
Twelve months later, that
had fallen to 136 – a
reduction of 27%.
The sector had
The domestic aviation market in the UK experienced seismic shocks
in 2020. Tom Batchelor reviews the events of the last 12 months
and speaks to executives of the country’s major airlines to find out
how they weathered the storm created by the collapse of Flybe and
the COVID-19 pandemic
been brought to a total standstill
last spring. Aviation expert John
Strickland said making a success of
the regional domestic market was a
huge challenge for any airline, even
before 2020:
“Outside of larger cities there are
few high-volume routes and much
traffic is seasonal,” he told Airliner
World. “Smaller aircraft have higher
seat costs, which mean the kind of
fares offered by low-cost carriers are
not sustainable and adding in high
air passenger duty [APD] ticket taxes,
it makes competition with surface
transport difficult.
“It is not surprising, therefore, that
we have seen several failures and
32
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
p the pieces
Southampton Airport
was heavily impacted
by the demise of Flybe
because around 90% of its
flights were operated by
the regional carrier
SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORT
Shortly after entering
administration, the majority
of Flybe's former fleet was
returned to lessors and
repossessed by creditors
AVIATION IMAGE NETWORK/
BAOLUO
the number of viable routes left by
airlines like Flybe which can be taken
over by others is limited.”
Flybe fallout
Just a year ago, the Exeter-based
carrier was operating 70 routes across
the UK and Europe, according to
analysis by Robert Boyle, a former
director of strategy at International
Airlines Group (IAG). Each flight
had an average capacity of 80 seats,
meaning the airline was often
weighed down with too many
gaps to fill on too many planes, a
hefty tax bill and an increasingly
competitive domestic market. So,
when coronavirus emerged as a
threat to global aviation, Flybe was
not well placed to cope, and its
appeal for financial support from the
government was rejected.
Its collapse on March 5, 2020
plunged the UK aviation industry into
chaos. Thousands of staff were laid
off, airports that relied on Flybe for
the vast majority of their traffic (90%
of flights in the case of Southampton)
saw their business dry up overnight,
and regional economies feared they
would be cut off from the rest of the
country while losing connections to
the world.
EasyJet was the biggest beneficiary
and continues to be the carrier with
the largest UK domestic presence,
OPPOSITE • The Exeter-based
carrier's jet fleet comprised
11 Embraer E170s and 14
larger E195 examples
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM /
MATTHIEU DOUHAIRE
but British Airways (BA) remains a
significant player – in second place
– when it comes to overall domestic
capacity. The Luton-based low-cost
carrier swept up around a third of
Flybe’s former routes, according
to analysis by Boyle’s GridPoint
Consulting, while IAG picked up
about 20% of the traffic through
British Airways and Aer Lingus.
“EasyJet was much more aggressive
than number two player BA in adding
back domestic capacity in July and
August,” Boyle said. “They resumed
services on virtually all their domestic
routes, with only Belfast to the Isle
of Man and Edinburgh to Jersey
remaining suspended.
www.key.aero
33
“Things swapped around in October,
with BA ramping up capacity just
as easyJet were cutting back.”
One key domestic route where the
BA axe fell early was on London/
Heathrow-Leeds/Bradford, with the
ten weekly flights cut immediately
following the announcement in May.
The varying successes of BA and
easyJet in capturing the domestic
34
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Loganair operates a PSO
route to the unique beach
airport of Barra in Scotland
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/SIMON
WILLSON
Loganair currently
fields a fleet consisting
of 17 Embraer ERJ-145s
AVIATION IMAGE
NETWORK / WIZZARD
market have a knock-on effect for
the country’s airports, too. Where BA
finds profits, Heathrow follows. While
for easyJet, sustainable domestic
routes are a boon primarily for its
Gatwick operations. Southampton
Airport, which relied heavily on Flybe
traffic, has warned that it could close
next year if its plans for its runway
extension, to allow it to handle
larger jets, are refused. Boyle said:
“The demise of Flybe has left IAG
unopposed on domestic routes from
Heathrow for now. However, the slots
that Flybe were using will remain
available for anyone wanting to enter
the market in the future.”
As for the remaining Flybe routes,
former franchisees Blue Islands and
Eastern Airways managed to retain
some connections they were already
operating – only now with their own
brands – while Loganair stepped in to
operate 16 additional ex-Flybe routes.
However, other airport pairings have
been lost, perhaps forever.
Loganair surge
A handful of airlines were well placed
to swoop on the domestic routes
left behind by Flybe. Glasgow-based
Loganair, whose fleet ranges from the
nine-seater Britten Norman Islander
to the 49 passenger-capacity Embraer
145, was one of them.
“Scotland’s Airline”, as it brands
itself, added more than ten routes
immediately after Flybe’s collapse
and several more services were
added as 2020 progressed. Some
The Saab 340 is the
oldest aircraft type in the
Scottish carrier's fleet.
The average age of its 13
examples is 30.1 years
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
ROLF JONSEN
new links were launched as a direct
result of the COVID-19 crisis, such as
services between the Isle of Man and
Liverpool, Manchester and London
City. Loganair, which started flying
in 1962, now boasts flights to more
domestic destinations than any
other airline.
Kay Ryan, the carrier’s commercial
director, told Airliner World the
company was “committed to keeping
the UK connected throughout these
challenging times”.
She added: “Our focus was, and
continues to be, adding routes that are
suitable for our aircraft types in terms
of customer demand and those which
have one end of a route within our
existing network. Connectivity with
our codeshare partners also plays
a part.” Of the airline’s new routes,
Newquay was the only destination
that was deferred, with flights from
Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh
to the Cornish town due to start in
2021. “The shape and size of our
routes continues to evolve, whilst
services from Shetland, Orkney and
Stornoway are amongst some of our
busiest routes,” she commented.
“Our new routes to Southampton,
www.key.aero
35
Belfast and Manchester will also
carry a significant proportion of our
customers.” However, Loganair’s
initial planned schedules were
trimmed back over the summer and
Ryan said the airline had planned
only “cautious growth” into the winter
season. To encourage increasingly
wary passengers to book, Loganair
halved the cost of making date
changes on bookings.
“As we near the winter months,
we remain cautious that customers
booking trips for business and
leisure across the UK are looking for
flexibility more than ever before,”
Ryan said.
Eastern expansion
The collapse of Flybe also had a
profound impact on Eastern Airways.
The Humberside-headquartered
carrier, which operated scheduled
passenger services under a franchise
agreement with Flybe that was
due to run until 2022, had just four
days to re-launch services under its
own branding and with a rapidly
established booking engine.
Roger Hage, commercial and
operations manager at Eastern
Airways, said Flybe’s collapse meant
challenges and opportunities.
The airline operates a fleet of British
Aerospace Jetstream turboprop, Saab
jet prop, ATR 600 series and Embraer
jets. It launched in 1997 with a single
service between Humberside and
Aberdeen, but has since grown as
a significant domestic carrier. In
March, it added a number of former
36
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
ABOVE • Set up in 1997,
Eastern Airways is
headquartered at
Humberside Airport
in North Lincolnshire
EASTERN AIRWAYS
TOP • Eastern Airways
currently boasts
a 12-strong fleet
comprising seven British
Aerospace Jetstream 41s,
two ATR 72s, two Embraer
ERJ-145 and a single E170
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/
AERO PIXELS
Flybe routes to its network, but that
was before the impact of COVID-19
had fully materialised.
Speaking to Airliner World, Hage
said the UK was “in a very different
travel environment” entering the
winter with volumes reduced by more
than 90% on some of the airline’s
routes: “In some cases, what would
have been workable routes, especially
serving smaller regional airports, are
now too thin to support, at least until
Q1 or even Q2 in 2021.”
That said, Eastern launched several
new services – including Newquay
to Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and
Teesside in 2020 – and aims to grow
that list. It hopes to re-establish
ex-Flybe connections such as Cardiff
to Edinburgh or East Midlands to
Glasgow. Hage said: “However,
given the current travel climate, we
have also made short-term route
suspensions such as
Newcastle-Southampton, a
route reliant on business and
cruise connectivity that remains
absent until at least Q1 2021.”
The carrier has also kept flights
operating to regional airports that
Hage suggested would otherwise
have been largely abandoned – such
as Teesside International, “an airport
neglected for many years other than
by KLM and Eastern”.
It now enjoys a number of new
services including a connection to
London/Heathrow, which Eastern
Airways began in September.
“Restoring the region’s link to
Heathrow, absent for more than a
decade, was as a consequence of
COVID as we had focused on London
City, a tremendously efficient airport
for business connectivity,” he said.
"The sudden loss of business traffic
coupled with some unforeseen gaps
in Heathrow resulted in a switch to
[the London hub] and maximising the
opportunities now presented by other
carriers’ reductions.
“This shows how with a close
partnership, regional airports and
forward-thinking regional airlines
can combine to quickly develop
opportunities. If airlines and airports
don’t work in a close partnership now,
neither will be able to see longer term
benefits when markets do recover.”
One headache for domestic
carriers is pricing: namely, how to
compete both with aggressive airline
competitors and an extensive road
and rail network. Hage said regional
airlines in the UK needed to move
away from the expectation that fares
could be offered below operating
costs: “We have seen rail fall into a
mess of fulfilling franchise payments
and air services are no different,
as costs of operation from fuel,
security and airport charges cannot
be contained with the fare models
achievable from higher volume
markets, where larger capacity can
be deployed. Regional airlines and
airports need each other more than
ever given the retrenchment to major
hubs of the larger operators.”
As for Eastern Airways’ fleet, he said
“small is beneficial” although the
airline is pressing ahead with three
An Eastern Airways Embraer
ERJ-145, G-CISK (c/n 570),
at Paris/Orly in August
2019 AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
MATTHIEU DOUHAIRE
previously planned Embraer 190
additions to accompany the smaller
Embraer 170 already in use. “We have
one of the most adaptable ad-hoc
operations of any operator which
allows us to serve Premier League
and Championship football, rugby,
corporate requirements and the
energy sector,” he added. Eastern
has also entered into a codeshare
partnership with Guernsey airline
Aurigny, and has a number of other
partnerships in development.
Blue Islands was established
in 1999 as Le Cocq's AirLink
and renamed initially
in 2003 as Rockhopper,
then again in 2006
under its current moniker
BLUE ISLANDS
Blue Islands
Two months into 2020, the
Guernsey-based carrier Blue Islands
had to re-establish its own reservation
systems, ticket distribution, website
www.key.aero
37
“and an awful lot more, virtually
overnight”, said CEO Rob Veron. “I’m
very proud to say we flew every
flight we had been scheduled to fly
as a Flybe franchise partner, plus
some additional rescue operations
too, to get people home,” he told
Airliner World.
Founded in 1999, the airline was
launched as Le Cocq’s AirLink,
transporting perishable goods to
the Channel island of Alderney from
Bournemouth using Britten Norman
Islanders. It flew its first passengers
in 2002 and was rebranded under the
current name four years later.
In 2016, Blue Islands became a
Flybe franchise partner, adopting
the now defunct carrier’s brand, but
remaining an independent airline
with its own aircraft and crew. When
coronavirus struck, it maintained
essential connectivity on behalf of
the Government of Jersey. Links
between the Channel Islands and
both Southampton and Gatwick were
kept for essential workers, plus those
requiring medical care in the UK,
using its five-strong fleet – four ATR
72-500s and a single ATR 42-320.
“We re-emerged stronger and
relaunched the business on July 8.
Travel restrictions have had a
38
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Rob Veron was appointed
CEO of Blue Islands in
January 2011 BLUE ISLANDS
major impact on our business with
significantly fewer people flying.
However, we have managed to
reconnect many locations, including
Bristol, Birmingham, Exeter and
Southampton. We have also launched
services from Exeter to Manchester
and launched a codeshare agreement
with Loganair for seamless
connections to Scotland and northern
England.” But there have been bumps
along the way: “To illustrate how
difficult things are, we restarted our
Jersey to East Midlands route on
September 29, but suspended it again
from October 10. This is because in
the week before the resumption of
flying, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester
and many surrounding areas were
classified as Amber or Red regions for
Jersey, which means five to 14 days
of quarantine on arrival. Our first
flight had 70% no-shows. For an
airline, with demand liable to swing
dramatically on a route from one
moment to the next, day-to-day tasks
such as planning a schedule, staffing
at the right levels and routine
budgeting becomes very difficult.”
Veron said the company published its
summer 2021 schedule in the hope
“passenger demand and COVID-19
related travel restrictions will have
returned to more normal levels then”.
Stobart focus
It is not just regional airlines that were
hit hard in 2020: airports too have
borne the brunt of changing travel
habits. Glyn Jones, CEO of Stobart
Aviation, which owns London
Southend Airport and the recently
opened Carlisle Lake District Airport,
as well as operating check-in,
baggage handling and cargo services
across multiple UK sites, was frank
about the industry challenge.
Speaking to Airliner World, he said
headwinds buffeting the aviation
sector “couldn’t be much worse”, with
Prior to its collapse,
Flybe operated the
PSO route between
Dundee and London/
Stansted using a Dornier 328
AVIATION IMAGE
NETWORK/BAOLUO
Since Flybe's demise,
Eastern Airways has entered
into a codeshare partnership
with Guernsey's Aurigny
AVIATIONIMAGENETWORK/
SIMON GREGORY
this likely to be a “very cold winter” for
commercial services. Notably, he said
disruption caused by the pandemic
was exacerbated by a government
failure to roll out a long-term plan
for the aviation sector: “There needs
to be a testing regime, full stop,” he
said. “What we’ve been saying is the
government needs to do three things:
first, come up with a testing regime
that is reliable; secondly it needs to
be affordable; and thirdly, and this
is really important, if you’re going to
do testing at airports, you need the
result instantaneously.” Commenting
on the prospect of Carlisle Airport
re-commencing passenger flights
– it had re-opened in July 2019 after
26 years – Jones said: “We can see
that there may be a way of serving
the borderlands and northwest of
England [from Carlisle], but it is so
incredibly difficult to forecast.
“Domestic services have always
been a challenge, and part of the
challenge is the aircraft size; you need
frequency for business, but frequency
is quite difficult on a domestic route.
Unless it is an absolute trunk route,
it is difficult with a big aeroplane.
You are caught between wanting to
provide business support through
frequency, but if you put an A320 on a
route, that is a lot of seats to fill.”
Talking taxes
Air passenger duty (APD) has
become a major battleground
between the British government
and domestic carriers.
The tax is added to all passenger
flights from UK airports, excluding
www.key.aero
39
Northern Ireland and the Scottish
Highlands and Islands, with the
amount based on the destination and
class of travel.
Passengers on domestic flights
must pay £13 for a one-way economy
ticket, rising for premium cabins and
longer journeys.
The tax, which critics such as
trade body Airlines UK say is “more
than three times the rate in France
and more than twice the rate in
Germany”, is partly blamed for the
demise of Flybe. But it is also seen
by the government as an important
environmental levy.
Roger Hage, of Eastern Airways, said
the abolition or suspension of APD
was unrealistic as the government is
“bound to various climate targets and
cannot be seen to soften on this”.
Far better, he added, would be if the
APD income was “recycled directly
into each route via the airline and the
airport to support regional air services
and thus retain viability of many”.
He said: “If 50 passengers’ APD is
fed directly back to the airport and
airline in some form of route support
mechanism, it helps them protect
that invaluable connection and
incentivises the operator and airport
to seek all ways to stimulate further
passenger growth.”
Stobart’s Glyn Jones said regional
connectivity was vital to the
economy, but APD was a big problem,
leaving UK carriers hamstrung
compared with European rivals.
40
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
One area of domestic air travel
where government intervention
has supported the industry is Public
Service Obligations (PSO) flights
– where carriers are compensated
for running a loss-making route that
is deemed to be economically or
socially vital.
Government backing
The De Havilland Canada
DHC-8 was the cornerstone
of the regional carrier's
fleet AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
MATTHIEU DOUHAIRE
British Airways currently services the
Heathrow-Newquay link under a PSO
– a route once operated by Flybe.
Loganair operates several more,
including the inter-islands air
services in the Outer Hebrides.
The carrier’s Kay Ryan said: “We
continue to service our PSO routes
which operate from Dundee to
London City, Derry to Stansted,
Glasgow to Barra/Campbeltown/
Tiree, and Benbecula to Stornoway.”
Eastern Airways operates a
government-backed route between
Cardiff and Anglesey, offering a
50-minute air alternative to the
four-and-a-half-hour drive.
But Roger Hage added the Public
Service Obligations model was not
the only way of making low-density
routes work: “While some
airports such as Newquay,
Dundee and Londonderry have
government-funded London
connections, shared risk approaches
can unlock other less well supported
regions, especially those otherwise
regarded as peripheral,” he said.
An unexpected twist in the
rollercoaster for UK domestic carriers
that was 2020, came in October when
news broke that the new owner of
Flybe was exploring the possibility of
restarting operations.
Thyme Opco reported it planned
to "start off smaller than before", but
eventually hoped to “create valuable
airline industry jobs, restore essential
regional connectivity in the UK and
contribute to the recovery of a vital
part of the country's economy”.
Into the future
Questions remain over whether
Flybe still has a valid operating
licence and if there is sufficient
demand to re-launch an airline
that was struggling even before the
coronavirus struck.
But that has given hope that the
months and years to come will be
marked by expansion rather than
contraction of domestic services.
Jet2 also announced plans to
launch new routes to Jersey from
London Stansted, Manchester and
Newcastle, which, while not strictly
domestic, supports the argument
that expansion closer to home is still
commercially viable.
After what is expected to be a
bumpy winter, airlines will be hoping
for less turbulence in 2021.
And with news that the Flybe brand
may yet be resurrected, there is still
hope that the domestic UK aviation
scene will look a lot healthier in 12
months’ time.
CONTINUE THE JOURNEY OF THE
LEGENDARY BA 747-436
WITH THIS DESKTOP MODEL FEATURING A CAST 747
MINIATURE MADE USING ALUMINIUM FROM
BA 747 G-CIVM
Handcrafted in small batches in the UK
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24/11/2020 09:18:35
A pilgrimage
to the Pyrenees
The French town of Lourdes is renowned globally
as a destination of religious pilgrimage. However,
in the aviation industry, its airport is synonymous
with aircraft storage and scrap. In the second
instalment of this series, Sebastian Thoma provides
a remarkable snapshot of Tarbes–Lourdes Airport
from both the air and the ground
ABOVE • This pair of Airbus A330-200s had been withdrawn from use with their respective
airlines before the COVID-19 pandemic affected Europe. The engineless Corsair International
example, F-HBIL (c/n 320), had served exclusively with the French leisure airline for its entire
lifespan. Conversely, the 21-year-old Hi Fly widebody, CS-TQW (c/n 262), had a varied career
flying with operators including Swissair, Malaysia Airlines and Vietnam Airlines
BELOW • A trio of former Air France Airbus A380-800s lie idle in a stored
condition. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the
type’s complete retirement by the flag carrier, at least six examples have
been parked at Tarbes–Lourdes. These are F-HPJA (c/n 033), F-HPJC (c/n 043),
F-HPJE (c/n 052), F-HPJH (c/n 099), F-HPJI (c/n 115) and F-HPJJ (c/n 117)
42
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
ABOVE • Tarbes–Lourdes is
situated in the region of
Occitanie in southwest France
and lies in close proximity to
the Pyrenees mountain range
ABOVE • The Russian flag carrier Aeroflot was originally scheduled to receive a number of
Airbus A350-900s. However, after just one delivery, bosses at the airline confirmed in August
of this year that its outstanding examples would now be deferred. As a result, airframes such
as VQ-BFZ (c/n 414) ‘A Dementyev’ were flown directly into storage at Tarbes–Lourdes
These two Airbus A330-200s, VT-JWP (c/n 947) and VT-JWQ (c/n 956), formerly run by Jet Airways have been
parked at Tarbes–Lourdes since the collapse of the Indian carrier in 2019. Both of the widebodies – which
had been outfitted in a two-class, 254-seat configuration – were handed over in the second half of 2008
This Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered Airbus A350-900, B-308H (c/n 251), was sent straight into storage at
Tarbes–Lourdes upon delivery to Hainan Airlines in July of last year. Originally, the aircraft had been destined
to serve with Hong Kong Airlines as B-LGG, although it was not taken up
ABOVE • With assistance from a local flying club, the author managed to capture this truly remarkable bird’seye view of 24 widebodies. In the line-up, there are 20 Airbus jets, comprising A330, A340, A350 and A380s,
while only four are Boeing-built – a trio of 747-400s and one 777-200ER
Unlike a majority of airline storage/scrap facilities, the airfield at Lourdes is home to a small number of
commercial flights. While only Air France and Ryanair serve the French airport year-round, many aircraft
traffic movements are associated with religious pilgrimage charters
www.key.aero
43
This size difference between three members of the Airbus A320 Family is quite
striking in this aerial shot. A 2007-built former Avianca Brasil A318, PR-AVL (c/n
3214), is joined by an ex-South African Airways A319ceo, LZ-GNI (c/n 2469), and
a pair of A320ceos , EI-GCC (c/n 2044) and D-AIQD (c/n 202)
ABOVE • This 2003-vintage Airbus A340-500, F-WJKJ (c/n 478), bore the former
registration 9V-SGC and was one of a five-strong contingent to operate the world’s
longest flight between Singapore-New York/Newark and featured just a 100-seat
business class configuration. The type was withdrawn after Singapore Airlines
discontinued the 9,530-mile ultra-long-haul route, although the link was resumed
in 2018 following the introduction of the fuel-efficient A350-900ULRs
LEFT • This 37-year-old Airbus A300B4F, N835JM (c/n 259), has been a resident at
Tarbes–Lourdes for many years after having been phased out of service. The jet was
delivered new to New York-based Eastern Air Lines in December 1983, becoming its
30th A300 example. After serving with numerous US carriers, including Continental
Airlines and the briefly relaunched Pan Am, it underwent cargo conversion in 1999 for
European Air Transport
BELOW • This ex-Avianca Brasil Airbus A330-200, N508AV (c/n 1508), was one of
six examples flown by the carrier. Following its storage, the Rolls-Royce Trent
700-powered airframe is scheduled to become the first A330 for London/Stanstedbased Titan Airways – as G-POWX – and will be on lease from Avolon
44
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
ABOVE • Tarbes–Lourdes has a maximum storage space for 90 aircraft
BELOW • The French airport has the dubious honour of being the first airline storage site in the world to scrap
the iconic Airbus A380. The third and fifth super jumbos to roll off the production line, 9V-SKA (c/n 003) and
9V-SKB (c/n 005) respectively, had formerly flown for Singapore Airlines
BELOW • The Airbus A340 prototype, F-WWAI (c/n 001), was heavily modified for the European airframer’s
Breakthrough Laminar Aircraft Demonstrator in Europe (BLADE) project, based out of Tarbes–Lourdes.
According to Airbus, the 16-month programme aimed to improve aviation’s ecological footprint by creating “a
50% reduction of wing friction.” The jet has remained in storage since August of last year
Former Vietnam Airlines Boeing 777-200ER, VN-A142 (c/n 32701), was withdrawn in 2016 after 13 years of
service. It was replaced as newer types – such as the 787 and Airbus A350 – were incorporated into its fleet
www.key.aero
45
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24/11/2020 10:01
SET UP
TO
FAIL?
I
n April 1956 British European
Airways (BEA) had no need
for jet aircraft, indeed its
chief executive, Anthony
Milward said he would “rather
do without”. Desperate to keep up
with the Joneses and their new
jets, but not knowing which way
to turn, within three months the
company had ordered the larger
Vickers Vanguard to supplement its
Viscounts. However, Milward was
quickly forced to eat his words and,
knowing a Sud Aviation Caravelle
order wouldn’t receive government
approval, issued requirements to
British aircraft manufacturers for a
second-generation short-haul jet.
Six firms bid for the project – with
offerings including the Bristol Type
200 and Avro’s 740, a futuristic
V-tailed trijet – but BEA chose the
de Havilland DH.121 which was
planned as a 110-seater and, with its
three Rolls-Royce RB141 Medways of
13,500lb st each, had range of up to
2,000 miles.
With the design’s specifications
seemingly set in stone, indecision
set in once again and BEA stated
BEA Trident 1E, G-ARPP (c/n
2117), at the company's
Heathrow maintenance base
in the later Speedjack livery
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
ATI COLLECTION
its passenger forecasts were
over optimistic and demanded a
substantial downsizing. The carrier’s
new airliner required approximately
40% less thrust, half the range and
20% less passenger capacity of the
original DH.121.
Knowing BEA was then the only
customer and certain to place a
large order, the manufacturer’s
management offered little resistance
to this drastic change in specification.
However, this arrangement crippled
the aircraft’s sales potential, enabling
the larger and superior performing
In its initial guise, the Trident was a world beater set to steal Boeing’s thunder and rob the US
manufacturer of 727 sales. Sent back to the drawing board by British European Airways, the
world’s first trijet airliner was deprived of performance and passengers making it a financial flop.
Stephen Skinner details its development and early variants in the first of two instalments
48
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Boeing 727 to steal a march on the
Hatfield-developed airliner and
eventually accrue 15 times the
number of orders mustered by the de
Havilland-designed type.
Trident 1C
With the Trident’s design rejigged,
BEA signed for 24 examples on
August 12, 1959 with delivery of all the
aircraft to be completed by the end
of 1965. In a nod to its triple engines
and systems the 121 was named the
Trident a year later.
BEA had opted for the Trident 1C
when placing its initial order. The
114ft 9in-long jet was powered by
three Rolls-Royce RB163 Speys, each
providing 9,850lbs thrust, while its
clean wing included leading-edge
droops, air brakes and double-slotted
flaps. Originally the 1C had an APU
mounted in the belly, but because it
had a tendency to melt or even set fire
to the tarmac it was relocated to the
base of the rudder, above the centre
engine exhaust.
The Trident was remarkable for
having triple-system safety, with
three autopilots, three hydraulic
systems and even three flight deck
crew. A dramatic step forward
was taken with the aircraft being
developed from the ground up to
be compatible with Smiths Aircraft
Industries’ Autoland system, enabling
the autopilot to make approaches and
later landings.
The unusual sidewaysretracting nose landing
gear is evident in this
image of BEA Trident
1C, G-ARPJ (c/n 2110)
KEY COLLECTION
DH becomes HS
Following government pressure for
aircraft manufacturers to merge,
de Havilland was – along with
Folland Aircraft – taken over by
Hawker Siddeley in 1959. Blackburn
Aircraft, builders of the Buccaneer
and Beverley, joined the fold in 1960
and from 1963 all the aircraft built
by the group were known as Hawker
Siddeley types.
Despite these mergers, Trident
development continued, and a
maiden flight took place on January
9, 1962. Though not revealed at the
time, the flight proved to be rather
dramatic. During landing gear
retraction tests an undercarriage unit
was jammed halfway down while the
other main undercarriage unit was
correctly extended. Fortunately, this
Tridents on the Hatfield
apron: G-ARPC with
black wool-tufted
wings alongside G-ARPB
VIA AUTHOR
www.key.aero
49
situation was resolved and G-ARPA
(c/n 2101) landed safely.
The first five examples, G-ARPA
to G-ARPE, took part in a flight test
programme that included more
than 3,000 stalls (many more than
anticipated). From this rigorous
evaluation it was concluded that
the aircraft’s stalling characteristics
would not be acceptable to the Air
Registration Board, the Civil Aviation
Authority’s predecessor, and so a stick
pusher would have to be installed to
satisfy requirements.
The importance of this device
was demonstrated on June 3, 1966
during a production test flight,
when BEA’s penultimate Trident 1C,
G-ARPY (c/n 2126) deep-stalled and
crashed, killing the four test crew
after the stick pusher was switched
off. Subsequently all Trident flight
tests were only flown with the stall
recovery systems operative and
incidence meters installed.
The Trident’s certificate of
airworthiness was granted on
February 18, 1964 and three weeks
later, G-ARPG (c/n 2107), completed
the first service from London to
Copenhagen. As more were delivered,
Tridents began to serve other
destinations – Frankfurt, Nice, Rome,
Paris, Brussels and Barcelona. By
March 1965, BEA’s fleet numbered
15 examples, with regular rotations
including 18 cities across Europe.
50
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
BEA’s Trident 1C, G-ARPB
(c/n 2102) at its Hatfield,
Hertfordshire birthplace.
Retired from the British
Airways fleet in 1978,
the aircraft was used
to train firefighters
at Glasgow/ Prestwick
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
ABOVE RIGHT • BEA's
extensive Trident fleet
was transferred to
British Airways when the
UK's two state-owned
airlines merged in 1974
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
During 1966 the Trident 1Cs were
all re-engined with more powerful
Spey 506s giving 10,410lbs thrust over
the Spey 505s’ 9,850lbs to improve
payload/range performance. This also
allowed the airline to take advantage
of its high-speed to cruise at Mach
0.88, but in the late 1960s the cruise
speed was reduced to M0.84 to save
fuel and reduce costs. Later, this was
further reduced to M0.8.
Accidents and incidents
Air Ceylon accepted the 15th
and final 1E variant in 1969,
deploying the jet on regional
services to destinations
including Bangkok,
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
BOB ROBINSON
BEA’s Trident 1Cs had more than
their fair share of losses in addition
to the pre-delivery crash of G-ARPY.
On July 3, 1968 its fleet was suddenly
depleted by two aircraft. A BKS
Airspeed Ambassador freighter,
G-AMAD (c/n 5211), was on final
approach to Heathrow carrying a load
of horses, when a flap failure caused
the left flaps to retract and the right
flaps to extend further. The aircraft
somersaulted into two BEA Trident 1s.
G-ARPT had its entire rear sliced off
and ’RPI lost its horizontal stabilisers
and most of the tail. The former was
a write-off but ’RPI was expensively
rebuilt, though crashed three years
later (see below). Five people were
killed in the freighter.
Two other incidents claimed BEA
Trident 1Cs. The first in July 1969 was
an act of arson involving G-ARPS,
while in December 1975 G-ARPC
caught fire and was burnt out on
stand at Heathrow.
On June 18, 1972 just less than four
years after having its tail torn off at
Heathrow, G-ARPI stalled and crashed
killing 118 passengers and crew in
what was then the worst ever British
airliner accident.
Ultimately, the cause was attributed
to the early retraction of the wing
leading-edge droops after take-off,
and the probability that the captain,
who had a heart condition, suffered a
heart attack on the flight deck.
The first development of the basic
aircraft was the Trident 1E, which
was designed to be more attractive
to foreign markets. Improved
airfield performance was achieved
by extending the wingspan by 5ft
providing 6.5% more wing area, the
flap span was also increased and the
droop leading-edge of the 1C was
replaced by a leading-edge slat. The
1E also had the benefit of 11,400lb
Rolls-Royce Spey 511s, a greater
fuel capacity and all-round higher
operating weights and payload.
Although the 1E’s fuselage was
the same length as the 1C, it
accommodated more passengers (115
instead of 101) through refinement of
the cabin design. The first Trident 1E,
destined for Kuwait Airways, flew on
November 2, 1964 while temporarily
registered as G-ASWU.
With the Trident 1E optimised
for operations from hot and high
airfields, Hawker Siddeley envisaged
the Middle East as a fertile ground
for sales. Accordingly, it laid down
15 examples on the production line.
The 113-seat Trident had similar
capabilities both in range and
airfield performance to the heavierweight 128-seat 727. Despite the
manufacturer’s optimism, the 1E only
achieved ten sales in this market,
Kuwait Airways and Iraqi Airways
each committing to three, while
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)
received four.
Iraqi Airways was the first carrier
to take delivery of a Trident 1E,
with YI-AEA arriving in Baghdad
on October 3, 1965. Services began
shortly after and the fleet steadily
grew as YI-AEB was delivered in
March 1966 and a third, YI-AEC,
followed in May. The three flew
routes from Baghdad to Frankfurt/
London, Damascus/Cairo, Beirut
and to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. They
continued in service until 1977 when
Iraqi Airways was the first
export customer for the de
Havilland-developed type
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
BKS Air Transport took on two
Trident 1Es that had been
intended for Channel Airways
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
they were withdrawn from use.
Both Kuwait Airways and PIA
received their maiden examples in
March 1966. The latter, at the time
Trident’s largest export customer,
initially placed its four examples on
domestic services from Islamabad
to Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore
and Dacca (Bangladesh formed the
Eastern provincial wing of Pakistan
from 1947 to 1971). The 1Es (AP-ATK,
-ATL, -ATM and -AUG) later served
international destinations across the
Middle East and as far afield as China
and Kenya. China would prove to be
the final destination for PIA’s Tridents
as the carrier sold its trijets to CAAC
Airlines in 1970.
Kuwait Airways, which also
deployed its Tridents across the
Middle East received its first 1E,
9K-ACF at Hatfield on March 18, 1966
but its second, 9K-ACG, crashed on
approach to Kuwait Airport only a
month after delivery. A replacement,
www.key.aero
51
differences comprised additional
Type 1 over-wing escape exits, which
had to be installed to meet passenger
emergency evacuation regulations.
Channel’s first Trident, G-AVYB,
was delivered on May 31, 1968 and
operated its maiden service from
Stansted a fortnight later. While
inclusive tour work came to be the
bread and butter of the Spey-powered
trijets, they also appeared on a small
number of scheduled services.
The carrier quickly came to realise
its eyes had been bigger than its belly
and had problems financing the
order, which was speedily reduced
from five to two aircraft.
New homes
A publicity shot of Kuwait
Airways' maiden Trident 1E
taken prior to delivery
KEY COLLECTION
Pakistan International
Airlines was the largest
customer for the Trident 1E,
ordering four examples
VIA AUTHOR
9K-ACH, was delivered in November
1966. In 1972 Kuwait’s two aircraft
were bought by BEA and sold on to
Cyprus Airways where they joined its
two Trident 2Es.
Having laid down 15 Trident 1Es
and sold ten, Hawker Siddeley
was understandably very eager to
offload the five unflown examples
it had lingering at Hatfield. Though
never the most financially sound
of operators, Channel Airways was
52
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
willing to take on the white tails,
signing a contract for them in
October 1967.
The jets differed from the standard
1E variant as seating was increased
from 115 to 139. This remarkable
increase in passenger capacity was
achieved by installing a new seat
at 31-inch pitch, while the forward
cabin had seven-abreast seating,
earning the aircraft the revised
moniker of Trident 1E-140. External
Kuwait Airways'
maiden Trident was
delivered on March 18, 1966
KEY COLLECTION
Two Trident 1Es due to have found a
home with Channel Airways, G-AVYC
and ‘VYD, were sold to Newcastlebased BKS Airlines in the first half
of 1969. The BKS jets also featured a
high-density seating arrangement
with a maximum capacity of 126
passengers. They operated from BKS’s
Tyneside base on scheduled and IT
services. In November 1970 the airline
was renamed Northeast.
Channel Airways ceased operations
in 1971, its two Tridents being
acquired by BEA and passed to
Northeast, which was merged into
British Airways in March 1976.
The last remaining Trident 1E was
delivered to Air Ceylon in July 1969.
Registered 4R-CAN (c/n 2135), the
aircraft plied routes from Colombo to
Karachi, Bombay, Madras, Bangkok,
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore
until retired and transferred to
instructional use in 1978.
Having originally dismissed the
increased range and endurance of de
Havilland’s initial offering, BEA was
back at the manufacturer’s door with
requests for an improved variant
capable of linking London and Beirut
with a full payload.
Don’t miss part two in next month’s edition
of Airliner World in which Stephen Skinner
details the trijet’s Far Eastern popularity and
explains how adding a fourth prong to the
Trident created its definitive variant.
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058_ALW_JAN21_ad.indd 1
24/11/2020 10:12:04
JANUARY 2021
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AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
JAVI SANCHEZ UTZET
54
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
www.key.aero
55
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25/11/2020 11:57
Aviation
transformations
With safety being absolutely paramount in aviation,
modifications to aircraft are normally strictly controlled by the
airworthiness authorities. However COVID-19 has seen a
temporary easing of some rules as Ian Harbison reports
W
hen the pandemic
hit last year, there
was immediate
worldwide demand
for medicines and
personal protection equipment.
Only air cargo could meet many of
the urgent delivery requirements
but there was an unseen knock-on
effect. Few realised that almost half
of all such freight was usually carried
in the belly of scheduled passenger
aircraft, which were being grounded
in huge numbers. In response to this
sudden drop in overall capacity, a
number of companies – including
Airbus, HAECO and Lufthansa
Technik – rapidly developed bags that
could be installed on the seats and in
containers mounted on the seat rails.
Another was Colibri Aero, based in
Lithuania and Ireland, which teamed
up with J&C Aero (also based in
Lithuania) to produce both seat
bags and containers.
Speaking to Airliner World, Andrius
Norkevičius, the CEO of Colibri Aero
explained that the company offers
a range of management services to
smaller airlines and lessors, providing
them with a lower cost alternative
to having the work carried out
in-house by full time employees.
This is because it is working with
several clients simultaneously, so the
firm can consolidate tasks and place
larger orders, which brings increased
purchasing power and better prices
for critical elements such as spare
parts or repairs.
Maximising efficiencies
The company specialises in interior
components on Airbus, ATR, Boeing,
Bombardier and Embraer aircraft,
matching resources to global
demand and trends. For spare parts,
services include the development of
customised inventories for clients,
based on an examination of their
The loss of 'belly-hold' cargo
on scheduled passenger
flights has been a notable
issue during the pandemic
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
TIM DE GROOT
usual consumption rates. This should
mean there is little or no surplus
material sitting on the shelf waiting
to be used as stock levels will be
based on what is most often required.
The company can also take care of
logistics, ensuring parts are delivered
where and when the customer needs
them, perhaps for an aircraft at a
facility in another country.
For component repairs, Colibri Aero
manages the entire process, selecting
where the equipment will be serviced
and it is here that regulatory approval
comes in, as it is necessary to have
Part-145 approval from the European
Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
This ensures that any company
working in aircraft maintenance
has properly trained staff, defined
processes, proper quality control and
maintains accurate records to meet
the future needs of its customers, as
incomplete records can reduce the
value of an aircraft. However, that’s
www.key.aero
57
not only much lower but also unstable
as quarantine regulations changed
across countries, often at short notice
as infection rates suddenly surged.
Cargo demand had grown anyway,
with increased online shopping, a
trend that is likely to continue far
beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
In response, Colibri Aero and
J&C Aero started to look at the next
generation of products – adding
cargo pallets. As they are both
members of the EASA working group
defining the new standards, they had
a good idea of what the agency was
looking for and could amend their
designs accordingly.
Bags of opportunity
not all. Colibri Aero also has two other
EASA approvals, Part-21J and Part21G. These enable the firm to carry
out its own design work to develop
new components and produce them.
This is the remit of the engineering
and planning department, which
specialises in cabin reconfiguration
and refurbishment.
Working in collaboration with
J&C Aero, which also has Part-21J
approval, the partners were able to
respond quickly to the new market
for seat bags (selected by IndiGo
for its Airbus A320 Family jets) and
containers (adopted by Korean Air
for its Boeing 777-300ER fleet). They
were helped by EASA taking a more
pragmatic view by issuing a series of
simple guidelines (the US FAA issued
a very similarly worded safety alert
for operators) rather than insisting
on the more usual full Supplemental
Type Certificate (STC) approval. This
is a modification to the aircraft and
changes the approved configuration,
which is defined by the Type
Certificate that is issued to allow a
new model to enter service.
EASA was also aware that airlines
using these products were starting to
see that there was a viable market in
operating their aircraft in this way, so
it advised that the relaxations would
end in November 2020, ensuring
that the full safety standards would
apply after that date. Indeed, airlines
found that being able to carry cargo
in this way offered new revenue
opportunities. It kept passenger
aircraft flying while traffic levels were
58
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
To maximise flexibility for the
operator, the bags can be
stowed away until the aircraft is
required for cargo duties...
TOP • Cargo seat bags
offer a flexible solution for
carriers who want to do
more with their fleet
COLIBRI AERO
ABOVE • Space is
maximised to ensure safe
and efficient loading
COLIBRI AERO
Playing the numbers game, the
partners have further developed their
seat bags for the Airbus A319/320/321
(including both CEO and NEO
variants) and the Boeing 737NG and
Classic, which are the most popular
types in service today. They are made
of military-specification nylon and
mimic the shape of a typical seat,
being available to fit double and
triple configurations. To maximise
flexibility for the operator, the bags
can be stowed away until the aircraft
is required for cargo duties.
Norkevičius explained that the
installation is simple, each seat
taking approximately five minutes,
and the bags can be carried by the
crew or other airline staff, with no
need for maintenance personnel. He
highlighted that the bags are installed
empty, so cargo has to be carried on
and fittings that are anchored to the
seat track on the floor. Such a set-up
can be complex as seats are rigorously
tested to ensure passenger safety –
a 10% increase in weight, perhaps
by adding an IFE screen – will call
for complete retesting, so the weight
limits are carefully designed not to
exceed typical passenger loads. As a
further safety measure, all hazardous
items such as liquids and lithium
batteries are not allowed. As testament
to their efforts, the partners were the
only ones to obtain an EASA STC for
their original seat bag.
board and then loaded. This increases
the typical turnaround time but is a
small penalty to pay for the flexibility
of the system. This also applies to the
pallets and the containers.
After the arm rests are folded up, a
pocket in the rear of the bag is slipped
over the seat backs. The packages
– weighing up to 330lb for a double
seat and 496lb for a triple seat – are
loaded, then a flap at the top is folded
over and a system of restraint belts are
put in place to hold it securely. This
includes belts around the seat in front
Further innovations
If the aircraft has all of it regular
passenger seats removed, then pallets
are also a possibility. There is a simple
aluminium sheet that is placed on the
floor to protect it while the cargo is
stacked on top. The freight is covered
by a net which is then securely
anchored to the seat rails. For an
Airbus A320, 180-197ft³ of cargo can
be carried, and up to 492-525ft³ for
an A330. One technicality is that an
aircraft cabin floor has a particular
weight loading – it is typically
stronger where heavy items such
ABOVE • The company
worked closely
with partners and
regulatory authorities
on the new designs
COLIBRI AERO
RIGHT • Freight can be
loaded on to the aircraft
manually offering
increased flexibility
COLIBRI AERO
BELOW • How an Airbus A330
could look with Colibri Aero's
cargo container solution
COLIBRI AERO
www.key.aero
59
as galleys and lavatories
are installed – and so the
maximum amount of cargo is
carefully calculated to ensure it
stays within these limits.
A further alternative is containers.
These are the most complex and
sophisticated items, as they are
designed for widebody aircraft
and for permanent use. In effect,
they are mini cargo bays, although
the carriage of hazardous material
remains prohibited. Constructed
from honeycomb panels, they are
mounted on the seat rails, with access
Counting
containers
For an Airbus A330-200, Colibri Aero is
proposing a mixed container layout, with
up to 36 containers of differing sizes:
● 24 containers measuring 9.8ft x 3.3ft
x 4.2ft (3.0m x 1.0m x 1.27m), carrying
1,653-1,874lb (750-850kg) each;
● Six measuring 8.2ft x 3.3ft x 4.2ft (2.5m
x 1.0m x 1.27m), carrying 1,323-1,543lb
(600-700kg) each;
● Four measuring 3.3ft x 3.3ft x 4.2ft
(1.0m x 1.0m x 1.27m), carrying 551-661lb
(250-300kg) each;
● Two measuring 4.9ft x 3.3ft x 4.2ft (1.5m
x 1.0m x 1.27m), carrying 772-882lb (350400kg) each.
Figures based on an all-cargo layout, but it
is possible to have a combi configuration,
so long as passengers do not have to pass
any containers on their way to reach the
first available emergency exit.
60
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
With the right equipment,
widebody aircraft
offer opportunities to
securely store containers
within the main cabin area
COLIBRI AERO
Korean Air has utilised
some of its widebody
passenger jets to help
meet soaring demand for
cargo during the pandemic
KOREAN AIR
doors on latches.
As with the bags,
cargo will be delivered to
the aircraft for loading, with
up 1,706lb per container, although
it could be possible to extend this
to as much as 2,270lb by modifying
the layout and strengthening the
restraints. Norkevičius confirmed
that the design is still undergoing
changes, so the final specification is
yet to be defined.
Safety measures include smoke
seals around the doors and a lavatory
smoke detector in each unit, along
with an inlet that allows a fire
extinguisher to be discharged directly
into the container. In addition, a
further smoke detector mounted
on the forward bulkhead provides
coverage of the complete cabin.
Future outlook
It appears that this new type of cargo
operation is here to stay for
the immediate future.
Airlines have a desperate need to
generate extra revenue to survive and
bags and containers offer operational
flexibility to respond to new market
conditions. Colibri Aero reckons that
an airline will be able to recoup the
investment in a full container layout
on a Boeing 777 in less than a year.
Quite how passengers would react
to travelling in a mixed container
layout remains to be seen, but a
speedy conversion to the bagcarrying configuration after a
day’s scheduled flying certainly
opens up a world of new business
opportunities during these most
challenging of times.
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061_ALW_JAN21_ad.indd 1
24/11/2020 10:51:44
‘other’
low-cost
airlines
The
Charles Woodley recounts some of the upstarts that tried to squeeze in on the
low-cost revolution that swept through the UK in the mid-1990s and early 2000s
62
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
T
he European Open-Skies
Treaty of 1992 was the
catalyst that led to a major
shift in the continent’s
commercial aviation
scene. Prior to this liberalisation,
the airline sector was dominated by
two types of carrier: scheduled and
charter, but its arrival effectively
created a free market, with EU
member states opening their borders
and allowing unrestricted access to
their airspace. It also lifted restrictions
on seat-only flights, leading to a
wave of new no-frills carriers that
combined charter airline costs
with the convenience of scheduled
operators – Europe’s low-cost
revolution was born.
Many legacy flag carriers were
initially dismissive of these budget
airlines. However, this attitude soon
changed with the emergence of
Ryanair – widely considered Europe’s
first low-cost carrier (LCC) – and
easyJet, which started its assault on
the UK market by advertising flights
from London/Luton to Edinburgh
and Glasgow that were “as affordable
as a pair of jeans”.
By the end of the 1990s, these two
airlines had already emerged as the
front runners of the UK’s fledgling
LCC revolution. There was still room
in the market for other players, but
it was clear any new entrants would
have to bring something unique
to the table and strike the balance
between offering and cost if they
were to win over customers – very
few struck this balance and survived
to tell the tale.
London/Luton has been
one of the biggest
beneficiaries of the boom
in low-cost air travel
LONDON LUTON AIRPORT
Styled as 'Go', the airline
had a fleet of 28 Boeing
737-300s at the time of
its sale to easyJet
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
CHRIS SHELDON
Enter Debonair...
Created in 1996 by former Continental
Airlines and World Airways executive
Franco Mancassola, Debonair offered
low fares with destinations, timings
and frequencies all specifically
chosen to appeal to business
travellers. The new carrier’s
first choice of base was
London/Gatwick, but a
lack of suitable departure
slots forced a switch to
London/Luton – easyJet’s
back yard. In keeping with
the emerging LCC ethos,
the airline’s infrastructure
was kept small, with an initial fleet
of British Aerospace (BAe) 146s
flying under British World Airways’
Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and
maintenance being contracted out.
Scheduled services were launched
on June 19, 1996 to Munich,
Barcelona and to Düsseldorf Express
Airport (Mönchengladbach), seats for
which were all offered free of charge.
Further destinations were soon
added to Newcastle on July 10 and to
Copenhagen on August 7. The former
was abandoned early the following
year because of poor passenger
loads but Debonair’s expansion
www.key.aero
63
continued elsewhere, subsidised in
part by a £25m windfall that came
from the airline’s July 1997 flotation
on the pan-European Easdaq stock
exchange. By the end of the year, it
was carrying 600,000 passengers
and had entered into a strategic
partnership with Italy’s Azzurra Air.
While easyJet initially concentrated
on serving the UK, Debonair used
its fifth freedom traffic rights to
open services between European
destinations. A long-term contract
with the government of Calabria led
to the launch of domestic operations
in Italy on February 1, 1998 using a
pair of BAe 146s to link the southern
cities of Lamezia and Reggio with
Bologna, Florence, Rome and Turin.
Elsewhere on the Continent, a
chance encounter by Mancassola
led Debonair to create a new hub in
France. Lost on the outskirts of Paris
64
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
while on holiday with his wife, the
chairman stumbled upon the largely
deserted general aviation airfield at
Pontoise-Cormeilles – although big
enough to handle commercial flights.
By the end of the year, the carrier was
flying daily into what was promoted
as an alternative (and cheaper)
gateway to the French capital.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing.
At home, flag carrier British Airways
(BA) made the high-profile plunge
into the low-cost market via its new
subsidiary, Go Fly, which launched
into direct competition with several
rivals including Debonair (between
London and Rome). The strategic
alliance with Azzurra Air also drew
to a close as the operator was taken
under the wing of Italian national
airline, Alitalia.
This prompted Debonair to look
elsewhere. It signed a wet-lease
Debonair was one of the first
operators to attempt the
'premium low-fares' model
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
WOLFGANG MENDORF
A Debonair Avro RJ85,
G-DEBD (c/n 2034),
at Paris/Charles de
Gaulle in October 1998
AVSTOCK/PAUL LINK
agreement with Air France to
operate a pair of BAe 146s out of
Paris on services to Brussels, Brest
and Biarritz, before leasing in a
Boeing 737-300 from AB Airlines to
help maintain capacity on its own
network. The carrier also announced
a £22m agreement with German
powerhouse Lufthansa in November
1998 under which it would fly five
aircraft from Munich under the Team
Lufthansa banner. The deals helped
propel Debonair into the black as the
carrier posted its first profitable year.
It started 1999 in much the same
way, kicking off the Lufthansa
services in March and agreeing a
similar albeit smaller deal to operate
Swissair Express flights from
Zürich to Bologna and Venice. It
also continued to expand its own
operation, announcing a raft of
summer charters as it added further
BAe 146s to its fleet (including several
ex-Thai Airways examples) along with
two leased 737s.
A survey of Debonair passengers
at the time revealed that some 65%
of them were business travellers.
By this point it was serving mostly
primary airports, had a frequent flier
programme and even a self-styled
affordable business class as it aimed
to step away from rivals easyJet, Go
Fly and Ryanair and position itself as
a premium LCC.
This came at a price. A combination
of high costs, low fares and mounting
competition was unsustainable and,
lacking sufficiently deep pockets
to weather the storm, the airline
was forced into administration on
September 30, 1999 and put up for
sale. With no buyer forthcoming, all
flights were cancelled the following
day as Debonair ceased operations.
This Boeing 737-300, G-IGOA
(c/n 24678), of Go Fly is on
short finals at London/Luton
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
DEREK PEDLEY
Go Fly started its flying
programme at Stansted with
routes to Milan and Rome
LONDON STANSTED AIRPORT
BA fights back
Recognising the importance of
the growing LCC sector and its
increasing impact on the lucrative
regional market, BA responded with
‘Project Lupin’. The carrier’s dominant
position had been pursued largely
through franchise agreements and
the acquisition of operators such as
Brymon Airways, Dan-Air London
and British Caledonian. However, by
1995 Ryanair had overtaken BA and
Aer Lingus as the largest passenger
airline on the Dublin-London route
(at that time the busiest international
scheduled route in Europe). This
led BA to enter preliminary but
ultimately short-lived discussions
with the Irish LCC.
Having failed to reach an agreement
with Ryanair, BA turned its attentions
to easyJet. In late 1996, then BA CEO
Robert ‘Bob’ Ayling approached
founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou with
an apparent offer to buy. After a
three-month courtship the deal was
abandoned and BA moved instead
to launch its own no-frills offshoot,
codenamed ‘Project Hyacinth’.
The idea was simple – Ayling
wanted a completely independent
company which, free from the parent
carrier’s high costs and expensive
overheads, could compete directly
with its low-cost rivals. Barbara
Cassani, BA’s general manager in
New York, was chosen to head up
the new venture and she and Ayling
pitched their business plan to the BA
board on October 10, 1997. They were
met with overwhelming scepticism
– the carrier had seen its financial
results dragged down by the poor
performance of European subsidiaries
Deutsche BA and Air Liberté and was
understandably reluctant to invest
in yet another airline. The subject of
acquisition was raised once again but,
with Ryanair and easyJet ruled out
www.key.aero
65
ABOVE • BA broke from Go,
selling it to easyJet in 2002
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
DEREK PEDLEY
LEFT • Disappointing
outcomes from BA’s
earlier low-cost ventures
resulted in some scepticism
about Go Fly's prospects
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
KEITH BLINCOW
as too expensive and the fledgling
Debonair still making a loss, the
board concluded a new subsidiary
was the most plausible solution.
On November 17, BA announced
the creation of a new LCC offshoot,
codenamed ‘Operation Blue Sky’.
This, Ayling claimed, would “quickly
become a favourite with the budget
traveller” through its competitive
pricing and favourable schedules.
It was granted start-up capital
66
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
of just £25m, accompanied by the
demand it must break even within
three years, no mean feat for an
airline that had no staff, aircraft or
even a base. Discussions were initially
held with Luton but the airline
eventually opted for neighbouring
London gateway, Stansted, which
offered more favourable rates
and was better suited to
accommodate its ambitious
growth plans.
Go Fly (shortened to Go for
marketing purposes) was officially
unveiled on January 30, 1998
though its launch was not without
controversy. A last-ditch legal appeal
by easyJet, which claimed Go was
using unlawful subsidies from its
parent to offer predatory pricing
in a bid to oust its competition,
was unsuccessful. It did, however,
epitomise the bitter battle that raged
on between Europe’s LCCs over the
following months and years.
The action was not restricted to
the courts. Go’s inaugural service to
Rome on May 22 was gatecrashed by
Haji-Ioannou and several colleagues
– all clad in orange boiler suits – who
had bought several rows of seats on
board and offered every passenger a
free flight with easyJet.
Back at Stansted, Go was selling
round trips to Copenhagen, Milan
and Rome for just £100, while also
offering a higher level of
service than its rivals,
including assigned
seating and Costa
Coffee on board.
In July, it added
Lisbon and Bologna and expanded its
fleet to four 737-300s with a further
trio en route. In keeping with its
frugal philosophy, these aircraft were
leased second-hand examples, but
an offer from lessor GECAS for six
new-build airframes was too good
to refuse. The first of these arrived
in November 1998, leaving Go
scrambling to find additional work to
support its expanded fleet.
Unbalanced books
New winter routes to Venice and
Munich were added, though the
latter was loss-making and dropped
soon afterwards. At home, domestic
services to Edinburgh and Glasgow
were sold for just £25 return but it
was soon apparent that Go’s financial
performance was underwhelming. By
the end of its first year, revenue had
reached just £31m while its operating
costs were too high; it lost almost
£7m during the second quarter of
1999 alone. This led to the launch of
‘Operation Summer Sun’, which saw
Go introduce a host of new routes
to popular tourist hot spots such as
Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Alicante.
It made similar changes to its winter
programme, adding ski routes to
Lyon and Zürich and eliminating
expensive night stops from its flying
schedule as well as expanding its
domestic network to include Belfast.
Changes were also afoot behind the
scenes. In March 2000, Ayling was
replaced at BA by Rod Eddington,
who made it immediately clear Go
did not fit his future vision. Barely six
months after his arrival, the no-frills
offshoot was put up for sale. Initial
interest from rival easyJet and Dutch
flag carrier KLM, which planned to
merge Go with its own LCC Buzz, was
short-lived but an early front runner
was venture capital company 3i.
Having held equity stakes in British
Caledonian and CityFlyer, it was Go’s
preferred choice and, in June 2001, 3i
backed a £100m management buyout.
With its future secure, the carrier
embarked on another round of
expansion. It opened new bases at
Bristol and East Midlands, developed
its mini-hub in Belfast and assumed
control of the Stansted-Newcastle
route after the collapse of Gill Airways.
By the end of 2001, the airline was
the third largest in the UK with 24
aircraft and 38 routes – even the post
9/11 downturn did little to dampen
Go’s passenger traffic with load
factors averaging an impressive 76.5%
for the year. It was not enough to
stem 3i’s mounting losses, however,
and on May 16, 2002 it accepted
easyJet’s offer of £374m for the
carrier. The deal had a significant
impact on Europe’s LCC sector,
and propelled easyJet into the
continent’s biggest budget carrier.
The Go brand continued to fly for
the next ten months as the airlines
integrated various functions. The
final service – from Nice – arrived
at Stansted on March 29, 2003.
Creating a Buzz
The low-cost revolution completely
transformed the commercial
aviation industry almost overnight,
provoking a variety of responses
from Europe’s legacy carriers. Some
stayed the course, determined
customers would continue to favour
the so-called superior offering of
full-service airlines. Others watered
down their offerings, adopting a
hybrid model that retained some
BELOW LEFT • Buzz launched
in 1999 as a no-frills
spin-off of the Dutch flag
carrier's KLM uk subsidiary
JACK HILL/GETTY IMAGES
LEFT • The Buzz fleet
comprised Boeing
737-300 and British
Aerospace 146 examples
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
DEREK PEDLEY
BELOW • Buzz had high
frequencies from Stansted to
attract business traffic
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
DEREK PEDLEY
www.key.aero
67
of the ‘frills’ but at a lower cost to
customer and company. Elsewhere,
others elected to tackle the threat
head-on, repurposing existing
divisions or creating their standalone
low-cost offshoots. Dutch-based KLM
pursued the latter option, launching
Buzz in 1999 as a no-frills spin-off of
its KLM uk subsidiary.
With the financial clout of two
established carriers behind it, the new
budget brand got off to a promising
start with a fleet of six (later eight)
BAe 146s and a host of existing routes
(including Berlin, Frankfurt, Lyon,
Milan and Paris) transferring from
KLM uk. Operations kicked off on
January 4, 2000; within the first three
months Buzz had taken bookings
valued in excess of £100,000.
It was apparent from the outset that
the four-engined BAe 146 was not
ideally suited for low-cost services
with higher maintenance costs and
lower reliability than comparable
types. Buzz had already acquired
a pair of 737-300s before launch,
complemented by six more examples
leased from International Lease
Finance Corporation (ILFC). These
aircraft added capacity, but also more
complexity and cost associated with
mixed fleet operations.
Like Debonair, Buzz made a
determined effort to attract many
high-yield corporate travellers,
employing a commercial manager in
Germany to drum up interest from
local businesses in its links from
Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. It was part
of an aggressive network expansion
campaign – the carrier assumed
control of KLM uk’s StanstedAmsterdam service, unveiled plans
for a second base at Bournemouth
and added 13 new routes in France.
Unfortunately, in the face of
mounting competition, Buzz was
simply unable to get a foothold and in
January 2003, after three unprofitable
years of operation, KLM announced
it was selling the airline to Ryanair
for an estimated €20.1m. Rather than
integrate the new acquisition, the
Irish LCC instead rebranded it and its
ten-strong fleet as Buzz Stansted and
relaunched a slimmed down network
of 12 destinations, some of which
were former Buzz services and others
drawn from Ryanair’s own route map.
The operation was short-lived. The
carrier’s four BAe 146s were returned
TOP LEFT • Ryanair's
chief executive Michael
O'Leary reveals a
banner erected outside
a British Airways' travel
shop in September 1998
SINEAD LYNCH/
AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
LEFT • A bmibaby Boeing
737-300, G-TOYL (c/n 28594),
at Manchester in May 2011.
This example was delivered
new to Go Fly in April 1999
ANDY CROSSLEY/AEROMEDIA
68
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
to KLM uk in January 2004 and its six
737-300s, all of which had remained
on the UK register, were disposed of
in October when Ryanair pulled the
plug, closing its Stansted subsidiary.
Baby steps for BMI
British Midland International (BMI)
was another full-service operator to
create a low-cost arm. Unveiled in
January 2002, bmibaby – based at
East Midlands – was launched with
737s displaced by its parent’s fleet
renewal programme, the tailfins of
which were adorned with a cartoon
baby mascot named ‘Tiny’ (a play on
its marketing slogan, ‘the airline with
the tiny fares’).
It was suggested at the time that the
LCC had been introduced in direct
response to BA’s Go Fly opening a hub
at East Midlands, the long-time home
of BMI. This was strenuously denied,
and 52,000 reservations in the first
four days of ticket sales, equivalent to
more than 30% of bmibaby’s summer
2002 flying programme, highlighted
the growing demand for low-cost
travel in the region.
The inaugural service departed to
Malaga on March 20, with flights
added to Dublin, Barcelona, Nice,
Palma, Faro and Murcia over the
following weeks. Initial growth was
remarkable – a second base at Cardiff
was brought online that October as
average passenger load factors soared
to more than 74%. During its first year
of operations alone, bmibaby carried
in excess of 3m passengers and was
voted ‘Best Low-Cost Airline’ in the
Daily Telegraph Travel Awards.
Further bases were added at
Manchester, Durham Tees Valley (now
Teesside) and Birmingham during
the next 18 months as the airline
strengthened its position. In March
2007, it launched the ‘only choose
what you need’ initiative, intended
to attract business travellers with
optional extras such as flexible tickets,
lounge access and online check-in.
Outwardly at least, bmibaby seemed
to be thriving. By 2009 it was carrying
4m passengers to some 30 domestic
and European destinations with a
fleet of 19 737s, but all was not well.
The airline had already suspended
five routes from East Midlands – a
result of fewer travellers booking city
breaks – when, in November 2009, it
announced a raft of cuts, including
150-plus staff and several aircraft, as it
moved to stem rising losses.
Bases at Cardiff and Manchester
were closed at the end of the summer
2011 season as the airline reshuffled
its operations again, but its entire
LEFT • This 1994-built
bmibaby Boeing 737-500,
G-BVKB (c/n 27268), seen
during its final days at
Bruntingthorpe in 2013
ANDY CROSSLEY/AEROMEDIA
ABOVE • East Midlands was
one of the airports hardest
hit by the demise of bmibaby
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
BILL BLANCHARD
www.key.aero
69
As low-cost travel gained
popularity, easyJet founder
Stelios Haji-Ioannou
became a household name
ADRIAN DENNIS/
AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
future was thrown into doubt just
weeks later when Anglo-Spanish
conglomerate International Airlines
Group (IAG, owner of BA) announced
it had agreed to buy parent BMI
from Lufthansa. The deal would
not, however, include subsidiaries
bmibaby or bmi Regional if they could
be sold separately before completion.
The LCC soldiered on but, with
losses of £100m over the four years to
2012, no buyer was forthcoming and
the carrier passed reluctantly into the
ownership of IAG that April. Efforts
to sell bmibaby continued but just a
month later IAG confirmed it would
be winding the division down. Routes
to Belfast, Amsterdam, Paris and
Geneva were withdrawn in June; the
remainder followed on September 9,
2012 when bmibaby closed its doors
with the loss of 800 staff.
Beyond London
Before shifting to an
online booking model,
easyJet's early aircraft
were emblazoned with
its telephone number
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
70
Though many budget carriers
were London-centric, this wasn’t
always the case. Flyglobespan was
established in November of 2002
as an offshoot of the successful
Edinburgh-based tour operator
Globespan and differed from its rivals
in that it was of Scottish origin, and it
diversified into the long-haul market.
Services were launched in April
2003 to destinations in Europe using
737-300s and crews supplied by
Channel Express and flown under
its AOC. Buoyed by success, it added
both destinations and frequencies,
helping drive it to an operating
profit of £3.7m for the financial year
ending October 2004. Its offering
was, however, refined and included a
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
shift in operations from Prestwick to
nearby Glasgow and the creation of
an Edinburgh base.
The acquisition of its own AOC
enabled Flyglobespan to embark on
a bold expansion strategy, as it added
nine more 737s to its fleet during
2005 alone and introduced domestic
services to London. Operating at
twice-daily during weekdays and
daily on weekends from Edinburgh
and Glasgow to Stansted, one-way
fares were just £19.99 including taxes
(or £59 on a flexible business ticket).
They were keenly priced, but pitched
the airline in direct competition
with the much larger easyJet, which
offered higher frequencies. As a
result, they were not profitable and
were withdrawn in February 2006.
The Scottish carrier did, however,
continue to innovate elsewhere. Its
maiden 737-800 arrived in April 2005
and was the first of the type in the
UK to feature winglets, which offered
improved fuel efficiency, increased
payload range and better take-off
performance. With a bolstered fleet,
it enabled Flyglobespan to expand
its network to 15 destinations for the
summer 2005 season.
Less than a year later, it reached
the major milestone of becoming a
fully fledged transatlantic operator,
connecting Glasgow with Florida’s
Orlando/Sanford deploying a
276-seat 767-300ER. Notably, the
aircraft featured a three-class cabin,
including premium economy and
business, boasting sleeper seats,
gourmet food and fine wines – a
Flyglobespan's core
operations were centred
around Glasgow and
Edinburgh airports
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/EUROPIX
Flyglobespan dropped its
traditional red livery when
it leased EI-DMJ (c/n 27958),
a Boeing 767 example
from Italian carrier Neos
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/HAMFIVE
marked departure from the traditional
no-frills model.
Introducing widebodies enabled
it to stretch its reach to Cape
Town, South Africa (thrice-weekly
from Manchester) and, later, from
Doncaster Sheffield Airport to
Hamilton, Ontario among others. It
was an impressive network, but one
with its own issues. It leased a pair of
757s from Icelandair for direct daily
Liverpool-New York/John F Kennedy
links in May 2007, but the service
was blighted by poor reliability, long
delays and disappointing traffic loads.
Similarly, the carrier was forced to
frequently employ its 737-800s on
transatlantic flights from Ireland West
Airport Knock in place of the planned
757, often needing refuelling stops in
Iceland, Newfoundland or Maine.
Both services were axed in October
2007 when the UK Civil Aviation
Authority (CAA) suspended the
airline’s ETOPS certificate. The
regulator declined to elaborate on
its reasons, but said it was the first
time in 15 years a UK carrier had lost
such approval and noted such a move
“is not done lightly”. Skytrax also
withdrew the carrier’s rating owing to
“product and service inconsistency.”
The challenges faced by
Flyglobespan on its long-haul network
exacerbated its mounting financial
difficulties. It posted a £19.3m loss
in 2007, and in November 2009 The
Independent newspaper revealed
it had required “a last-ditch cash
injection” due to cash-flow difficulties
following delays in payment by a
credit card clearing company – the
amount owed to the airline was later
estimated to be around £35m.
Much-needed revenue arrived via
contracts from the Ministry of
Defence for trooping flights from RAF
Brize Norton to the Middle East,
Ascension and the Falklands. It was
too little, too late. The airline abruptly
ceased trading on December 16, 2009
and entered administration, stranding
4,500 travellers abroad and leaving
hundreds of staff out of work.
Have your say!
Which airline would you like to
see still flying today? Share your
memories via airlinerworld@
keypublishing.com, join the debate
on the Key.Aero forum or find us on
Facebook and Twitter.
www.key.aero
71
Polynesian
T
onga has always proved
itself a challenge to
its airlines. Although
the country’s aviation
authority has often
enforced a strict one-airline policy to
avoid competition, no fewer than 11
airlines have come and gone over the
past five decades. Chathams Pacific
Airlines was no exception, operating
for just five years from 2008-2013.
However, the carrier’s brief reign
marks a very special chapter in the
nation’s aviation history – having
connected the kingdom with a fleet
of vintage aircraft rarely seen
operating elsewhere.
Tonga is a small Polynesian
sovereign state with a population of
around 100,000 inhabiting 36 of 169
islands. Remarkably, the country was
never colonised, although it was a
British protected state between 1900
and 1970. As of 2010, the island nation
is a constitutional monarchy. Its many
The Chathams Pacific story
islands can be divided into three
groups: Tongatapu, the country’s
port of entry and administrative
and financial centre; tourist hotbed
Vava’u, which offers excellent
sailing and diving opportunities;
and Ha’apai, sandwiched between
the two. Additionally, there are
two remote islands further north,
Niuatoputapu and Niuafo’ou, which
receive infrequent air links.
Few places on Earth lie further away
from Europe than Tonga; as the crow
flies, its small capital – Nuku’alofa
– is 10,423 miles from Frankfurt,
where my journey began. There are
no direct flights to the Polynesian
outpost and at least two stops are
required en route. I opted to fly with
Lufthansa on board a Boeing 747-400
to Hong Kong for the first leg, before
continuing to Auckland on a Cathay
Pacific Airbus A340-300.
Before completing my journey, I
seized the opportunity to fly with
Commercial aviation has been a difficult nut to crack
in Tonga since the first domestic flights took off in
1972. Bernd Sturm recalls a visit to the South Pacific
kingdom and the brief period when Chathams Pacific
connected the island nation with Convair classics
72
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Chathams Pacific's sole
Swearingen Metroliner,
ZK-CIC (c/n 623), arrives at
Ha'apai from Vava'u
ALL PHOTOS AUTHOR
Great Barrier Airlines to its namesake
island on bright red Britten-Norman
Trislander, ZK-LGF (c/n 1023).
The following day, I boarded an
Air New Zealand Boeing 767-300ER,
the third and final widebody on
my marathon trip to the Kingdom
of Tonga. Nuku'alofa´s Fua'amotu
International Airport, lies around 12
miles south of the capital. It is the
country’s only international gateway
and the only airport large enough
to handle jet aircraft. It has a single
8,795ft asphalt runway and a smaller,
unused grass strip.
Unusual for an international facility,
it is completely closed on Sundays
by Tongan law (like everything else)
when people are expected to attend
church services.
At the time of my visit, the gateway
played host to Chathams Pacific
Airlines – then the nation’s only
domestic carrier. The Tongan
domestic market is simply not big
propliners
Great Barrier Airlines
operated a quartet of
Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk.III
Trislanders. The carrier
has since shifted to a fleet
of three Cessna Grand
Caravans and rebranded as
Barrier Air
enough to sustain more than one
domestic operator and, even for a
monopolist, providing air links is a
difficult venture due to the country’s
geography in the region.
Between two-thirds and 70% of the
population lives on the main island
of Tongatapu with the remaining
30,000 residents spread out across
36 inhabited islands scattered over
270,000 square miles of southern
Pacific Ocean – an area larger than
the country of France.
www.key.aero
73
Adding to the complexities, demand
is weak and fluctuates considerably
over the course of a year. The winter
months of June to September (in the
southern hemisphere) are considered
the high season with increased
tourist numbers, predominantly from
Australia and New Zealand. However,
the rest of the year is quieter with
locals using just a handful of flights.
Fua'amotu International
Airport is the country's only
international gateway
A turbulent past
As opposed to the country’s relatively
tranquil and peaceful history, its
airline industry has been notoriously
turbulent and troublesome. Most
airlines don’t survive more than
a couple of years with all of them,
except for Chathams Pacific, being
forced out of business due to financial
difficulties. The country’s first airline
was Tonga Internal Air Service
between 1972-1978. Its successor,
Tonga Air Service, began operations
on May 22, 1978 when it took over
the role operating Britten-Norman
Islanders and a Beechcraft Baron, but
it too collapsed in 1980. Four years
later, Friendly Island Airways took up
the mantle with a Casa C-212 Aviocar
and BN-2 Islander, later acquiring
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin
Otters, before being merged into the
country’s longest-serving carrier,
Royal Tongan Airlines, in 1991.
Royal Tongan continued to use
the ex-Friendly Island Airways Twin
Otters while it brought in jets for
74
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Air New Zealand's Boeing
767-300ERs, such as ZK-NCL
(c/n 28745), were the
largest visitors to Fua'amotu
International Airport.
The jets have since been
replaced by 787-9s
BELOW • Passengers board
the Convair Metropolitan for
flight CV705 to Vava'u
international connections; initially
it used a 737-200 leased from Air
New Zealand before opting for a
more modern -300 variant owned
by Air Pacific. The carrier’s strong
ambition would become its downfall,
introducing a Royal Brunei Airlines
757-200 in 2002. The Rolls-Royce
RB211-powered jet was too large and
too expensive for the tiny carrier – it
would be repossessed by the Bandar
Seri Begawan-based operator within
two years with the Tongan airline
collapsing shortly thereafter.
With Royal Tongan out of the
picture, two new firms were quickly
established to sweep up the vacant
domestic market – Fly Niu Airlines
and Peau Vava’u Air. The former
lasted just three months before the
country’s newly ratified one-airline
policy took effect in September 2004.
ABOVE • The tiny domestic
terminal at Fua'amotu
airport. Note the
handwritten arrivals and
departure board behind the
check-in desks
ABOVE LEFT • Convair, ZK-CIE
(c/n 399), after a flight from
Nuku'alofa
LEFT: Remote Tonga lies
some 10,420 miles from
Frankfurt, the departure
point for the author’s
journey.
With its competition removed from
the equation, Peau Vava’u Air fared
somewhat better: its pair of Douglas
DC-3s, complemented by sole
examples of the British Aerospace
Jetstream 41 and Beechcraft Queen
Air, operated scheduled services until
2006, despite never making a profit.
Its network was suspended after its
headquarters were burned down
in riots and the airline never flew
again. Towards the end of its tenure,
the one-airline policy was revoked
and Airlines Tonga – a joint venture
between Air Fiji and a Tongan travel
agency – was formed in December
2005. It mopped up flights which had
been vacated by government-run
Peau Vava’u Air and remained the
country’s sole airline until its collapse
in 2008.
Tonga had accumulated a wealth
www.key.aero
75
of failed airlines within just five
years and its government made
the unprecedented step to permit
a foreign airline to run domestic
services. New Zealand’s Air Chathams
– named after its islands-base
– formed Chathams Pacific and
began flying within Tonga in
early 2008.
Bucking the trend
Unlike its predecessors, Chathams
Pacific soon developed a profitable
service which generated enough
income during the busy June to
September period that would
sustain losses incurred during the
quieter months.
Its network comprised twice-daily
links from its Tongatapu hub to
Vava’u and three times weekly flights
to Ha’apai, the latter often becoming
a triangular route. Additionally, the
airline flew weekly and fortnightly
connections to the tiny remote
76
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
ABOVE • Chathams Pacific's
modest main office at
Tongatapu/Fua'amotu
ABOVE RIGHT • The CV-580s
were operated in a 50-seat,
single-class layout
RIGHT • Two cabin crew pose
next to the CV-580's number
one Allison 501 turboprop
engine. The powerplant is
also found on the Lockheed
C-130H Hercules, Lockheed
L-188 Electra, P-3 Orion and
NASA's Aero Spacelines
Super Guppy
The 55-minute flight from
Tongatapu to Vava'u is
especially scenic, passing
dozens of islands and atolls
en route
islands of Niuatoputapu and
Niuafo'ou from Vava’u, respectively.
The longest sector in the company’s
network was the two-hour journey
from Vava'u to Niuafo'ou while the
shortest flight connected the capital
Nuku'alofa with ‘Eua – a small island
just 9.3 miles east of Tongatapu.
Averaging just under seven minutes
in the air, this link was also among
the world’s shortest commercial
flights and was exclusively flown by
company Islander, A3-LYP (c/n 821).
Parent company Air Chathams had
been well known for its association
with the Convair CV-580 and
two examples were transferred to
the Tongan subsidiary. However,
unlike the New Zealand operation,
Chathams Pacific’s propliners were
configured in a 50-seat all-passenger
configuration and the carrier held
the distinction of being the last
airline to operate a Metropolitan on
passenger services.
On final approach to
Lupepau'u
The Allison 501-powered Convairs
plied the Tongatapu-Vava’u route
exclusively, with links to Ha’apai
served by Beechcraft Queen Airs
and a Swearingen Metroliner. The
Queen Air was also the aircraft of
choice for rotations to the grass strips
of the remote northern islands. The
Lycoming IO-720-powered commuter
seats just eight, highlighting the
lack of demand on some of these
routes, given that they are flown as
infrequently as weekly or fortnightly.
Adding to the peculiarity of the
links, Chathams Pacific was the
world’s last airline to use the Queen
Air on scheduled connections.
As if this wasn’t enough to evidence
the quirks of Chatham Pacific’s
unique fleet, the carrier also had a
1944-built DC-3, A3-AWP (c/n 33135)
on its books. The former United
States Army Air Force and Royal
New Zealand Air Force propliner was
used occasionally on flights from
Tongatapu to Vava’u when demand
wasn’t sufficient to deploy the 50-seat
Convairs. At the time of my visit,
Chathams Pacific was one of just
two airlines using the venerable
radial-engined Dakota on regular
scheduled passenger links – the
other being Buffalo Airways in
northwestern Canada.
Getting airborne
Having spent the night in the
capital, Nuku'alofa, I was up early the
following morning to catch the first
flight of the day. I was hoping that a
Convair CV-580 would be rostered on
the Tongatapu-Vava'u route, but there
were no guarantees as aircraft type
is subject to passenger numbers and
freight demand.
Arriving at the airport during the
first rays of sunlight, I was relieved to
see ZK-CIE (c/n 399) being readied for
our flight. The propliner was built in
1957 and delivered to the Union Oil
ZK-CIE lines up at Lupepau'u
airport ahead of its
departure to Pilolevu airport
on Ha'apai island
Company of California as a Pratt &
Whitney Double Wasp-powered
CV-440 Metropolitan before
swapping its radials for two Allison
501 turboprops in 1961.
Fua'amotu’s domestic terminal is a
tiny one-storey building consisting
of two check-in counters, a small
seating area and a counter for cargo
shipments. The departure board
was just that – a large board with
handwritten details about the coming
day’s flights, including aircraft
registrations. Despite no food stalls or
bars, check-in formalities were quick
and efficient and once in possession
of a hand-written boarding card I
could proceed to the outdoor waiting
area. After watching the vintage
propliner being prepared for flight, it
was time for the short walk across the
apron to board.
Noticing my interest in the 1950s
airliner, the crew was incredibly
accommodating – I was invited
to take the jump seat for the flight.
Shortly afterwards, the number one
engine burst into life, although the
second was more reluctant – after
several failed attempts, everyone was
asked to disembark while engineers
worked to diagnose the problem.
While the starboard engine’s ignitors
were replaced, I was able to remain
airside to take pictures of the aircraft
in the early morning sunshine.
Problem solved and everyone back
on board, the doors were closed and
flight CV705 was back on track. After
a short engine run, we taxied to the
active runway and once lined up, the
pilots held the brakes while the power
was increased.
The sound of the engines and
its square four-bladed props
www.key.aero
77
was deafening, and the aircraft
shook violently before the brakes
were released and we rumbled
down Runway 11 at the start of our
55-minute journey to Vava'u.
The scenery en route was
breathtaking, as the flight took us
straight over the many islands and
islets of the Ha'apai group with its
lush green vegetation, turquoise
lagoons and deep blue ocean before
approaching Lupepau'u airport’s
5,593ft runway – quite a challenging
approach for the pilots due to rising
terrain at both ends of the strip. In
heavy rain the runway length would
not be sufficient to land, with a flight
returning to its origin in that case, but
today's conditions were perfect and
a smooth landing albeit with heavy
braking brought the aircraft to a stop.
Vava’u to Ha’apai
While Fua'amotu airport felt small
by international standards, our
destination was a world apart. The
terminal at Vava’u was a charming
one-room building with open-air
check-in facilities and seating area.
I spent the next couple of days
exploring some of the remote
outer islands, boating, hiking and
78
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
ABOVE • The author flew
on the more junior of the
carrier's two Beechcraft
Queen Airs
ABOVE RIGHT • The main road
at Ha'apai is closed when
the runway is active
TOP • Ha'apai's 2,300ft
runway almost cuts the
island in half. The main road
can be seen intersecting the
runway about a third of the
way down the strip
absorbing the relaxed island life
before embarking on the second
domestic flight that would take me
to Salote Pilolevu airport on Ha'apai
island. As just eight passengers were
booked onto the service, Chathams
Pacific deployed the smallest member
of its fleet, Beechcraft 65-B80 Queen
Air, A3-CIA (c/n LD-506), for flight.
The predecessor of the famous King
Air, the Queen Air is unpressurised
and has piston powerplants unlike
that of its Pratt & Whitney Canada
PT6A-powered successor. Both
Chathams Pacific examples had
been upgraded to Excalibur standard,
having exchanged their six-cylinder,
supercharged Lycoming IGSO-540s
for the more powerful and reliable
eight-cylinder IO-720s.
As the aircraft was being flown
by a single pilot, I was offered the
opportunity to take the right-hand
seat. A brief 30-minute flight later and
we were at our destination, arguably
the most interesting airport on Tonga.
Its short runway runs shore-to-shore
across the entire width of the island,
effectively cutting it in half. The main
road intersects the runway around a
third of the way from the 11 threshold.
Having disembarked and checked
into our nearby homestay, we got on
our bikes and had a cycle across the
2,300ft-long strip. Where else in the
world could you have this experience?
I spent the next five days biking
across the mainly flat islands and
taking a boat across to Uoleva island
with its remarkable palm tree-lined
beach, amazing bonfires and sunsets.
All too soon the next flight was
calling, and it was time to check in at
Salote Pilolevu airport for the return
flight to Tongatapu. With just six
passengers for today´s flight we were
due another trip on the Queen Air
but it was undergoing maintenance
so the company´s sole Swearingen
SA-227AC Metroliner III took over.
With the barriers along the main
road closed, the San Antonio,
Texas-built propliner appeared on
approach still wearing the livery of its
previous user, Origin Pacific Airways.
It soon climbed away for a second
attempt, going around due to a group
of pigs on the runway. With the pigs
having been shooed away by airport
staff, the Metroliner touched down
and was quickly turned around for the
return leg. Having stepped on board
and shimmied down the narrow
aisle to take our seats, the first officer
A beach on the sparsely
inhabited Uoleva Island
provided a safety demonstration
and the captain fired up the pair of
Honeywell TPE331s. We were soon
back in Tonga’s blue skies once again.
Dismantled Dakota
The Chathams Pacific
crew pose in front of their
Metroliner. The aircraft still
wears the basic livery of its
previous operator, Origin
Pacific Airways
A view across the
Metroliner's wing as the
type climbs away from
Lifuka island
Back in Nuku'alofa, I was very
satisfied by the amazing experiences
of the last ten days. Chathams
Pacific’s unique fleet and friendly,
professional crews transported me
to remote islands, enabling great
acquaintances with locals, sleeping
in simple wooden huts and watching
some of the most amazing sunsets.
However, when setting off on the
long journey from Europe, I’d hoped
for a flight on Chathams DC-3.
Unfortunately, at the time of my visit,
it was in the company’s maintenance
hangar with its wings removed for
corrosion inspections.
My disappointment was tempered by
an invite from one of the mechanics
to visit the facility and climb aboard
the World War Two veteran, sit in
one of the plush red passenger seats
and dream about the experience of
cruising across turquoise waters.
The Oklahoma City-built aircraft
has been in Tonga since it joined the
Peau Vava’u Air fleet back in 2004,
but previously spent more than six
decades in New Zealand flying for the
RNZAF, Air New Zealand and
later Field Air on topdressing
missions. It is notable for being one
of the few Skyliner conversions of
the DC-3 with 5ft-long panoramic
windows installed.
Alongside the DC-3, the company’s
www.key.aero
79
second Queen Air Excalibur, A3-FEW
(c/n LC-168), was undergoing repair
after a recent landing gear collapse.
Unlike Chatham Pacific’s other
example, this is an earlier straighttailed variant.
The second airframe to catch my
eye was a striking red and yellow
1946-vintage Beechcraft D18S
operated on behalf of the King of
Tonga and used for state flights. This
is almost certainly the last twin Beech
to be used to transport a head of state
and one of only three to still be in
military use eight decades after the
type’s maiden flight in 1937.
Another example was used on
maritime patrol and transport
missions by His Majesty’s Armed
Forces of Tonga until 2018 while the
Indonesian Police are understood
to fly a H18 variant which features a
tricycle undercarriage.
Tonga Force One: the King's
1946-built Beechcraft D18S,
N500MK (c/n A-216), is
used for domestic flights
as well as state visits to
neighbouring countries
The demise
While Tonga’s earlier carriers all
collapsed due to financial problems
and the country’s difficult domestic
market, Chathams Pacific ceased
flying for a different reason.
The company was both profitable
and reliable when, in 2013, China
gifted the Kingdom of Tonga a Xian
MA60 – a 54-seat Pratt & Whitney
PW127-powered airliner based on the
earlier Y-7, a licence-built Antonov
An-24 – along with a Harbin Y-12
16-seat turboprop.
Abandoning the one-airline policy,
80
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
The airline's sole Douglas
DC-3 is pictured undergoing
heavy maintenance
the King used the two aircraft to start
a second domestic airline
– REALTonga – in direct competition
with Chathams Pacific. Parent
company Chathams Air concluded
that the Tongan domestic market
was too small to sustain two airlines
simultaneously and chose to pull the
plug on the subsidiary.
It closed on March 3, 2013 and
most of its fleet was ferried back
to New Zealand as REALTonga
began operations. A sole Queen Air
Excalibur, A3-CIA, remained on
Tonga as the government-owned
start-up lacked an aircraft able to
provide the air link to ‘Eua island.
It was written off in a landing
accident at ‘Eua on April 30, 2014
although none of the eight on board
were injured.
Incumbent REALTonga has been
operating at a loss since its inception,
while there have been ongoing safety
issues with the carrier’s Chinese
aircraft and the Tongan prime
minister recently called for the airline
to be closed due to its high losses.
Whether REALTonga’s days are
numbered and it makes way for a
13th Tongan airline in less than five
decades remains to be seen, but
history has proven that Chathams
is capable of doing what few have
previously managed and is a natural
fit for the country’s difficult
domestic network.
Nearly eight years since the airline
closed, its website chathamspacific.
com is still up and running,
unchanged since services were
suspended in March 2013 as if poised
for a return. Who knows what the
future may bring?
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Airliner World Key Aero fp.indd 81
25/11/2020 12:05
The latest
commercial
aircraft
deliveries from
manufacturers
and lessors
Indian low-cost carrier
Spicejet has leased a de
Havilland DHC 6-300 from
Maldivian to begin domestic
seaplane operations
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/TEK
Key to Abbreviations
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aircraft
airlines
airways
bought from
broken up/scrapped
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manufacturer’s
construction/serial
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converted
destroyed by fire
damaged beyond
repair
delivery date
previous reg'n
first flight
freighter
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leased from
leased to
see cn
not taken up
on order
operated
passenger
permanently
withdrawn from use
registered
registration
returned from
returned to
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sold by
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sold to
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withdrawn from use
written off/destroyed
Thanks to Dave
Richardson and LAASI
Aviation for the above
82
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi [-/WAZ ‘WIZZ SKY’]
A6-WZA
A321neo
9503
ex D-AVYL, dd 08.09.20
Air China [CA/CCA ‘AIR CHINA’]
B-30FU
A320neo
10043
ex B-007R, dd 01.09.20
B-605Y
ARJ21-700
144
ex B-099H, dd 27.10.20
Air China Inner Mongolia [-/CNM ‘MENGYUAN’]
B-5477
737-800
36755
dd 24.10.20
Chengdu Airlines [EU/UEA ‘UNITED EAGLE’]
B-620E
ARJ21-700
122
ex B-001T, dd 29.10.20, lsd fr AVIC Leasing
B-1095
A320ceo
8222
ferried TSN-CTU 30.10.20, dd 29.06.18
China Eastern Airlines [MU/CES ‘CHINA EASTERN’]
B-30DJ
A320neo
9355
ex B-000Q, dd 21.09.20
B-30FF
A320neo
9501
ex B-000C, dd 14.09.20
B-320N
A320neo
9565
ex B-007K, dd 29.09.20
China Express Airlines [G5/HXA ‘CHINA EXPRESS’]
B-320P
A320neo
9557
ex D-AXAA, dd 25.09.20
China Southern Airlines [CZ/CSN ‘CHINA SOUTHERN’]
B-30E2
A321neo
9302
ex D-AVZE, dd 21.09.20
B-30F7
A321neo
9383
ex D-AYAI, dd 22.09.20
B-605X
ARJ21-700
145
ex B-099R, dd 21.10.20, lsd fr CSA Leasing
Genghis Khan Airlines [9D/NMG ‘TIANJIAO AIR’]
B-606C
ARJ21-700
135
ex B-001V, dd 12.10.20
Loong Air (Zhejiang Loong Air) [GJ/CDC ‘LOONG AIR’]
B-30FK
A320neo
9480
ex B-005F, dd 04.09.20
B-320D
A320neo
9527
ex B-005A, dd 20.09.20
Qingdao Airlines [QW/QDA ‘SKY LEGEND’]
ex B-007S, dd 21.09.20, lsd fr Everbright
B-320A
A320neo
10057
Financial Leasing
Reignwood Asia Aviation [-/ICU ‘ASIA MEDICAL’]
B-109M
DHC 6-400 974
ex C-GVVA, reg’d 04.19
SF Airlines [O3/CSS ‘SHUN FENG’]
B757-200
33098
ex N203DP
Shenzhen Airlines [ZH/CSZ ‘SHENZEN AIR’]
B-30FL
A320neo
9594
ex B-000L, dd 28.09.20
Sichuan Airlines [3U/CSC ‘SICHUAN’]
B-30E0
A320neo
9500
ex B-000T, dd 28.09.20
B-30FT
A320neo
10027
ex B-007P, dd 17.09.20
Spring Airlines [9S/CQH ‘AIR SPRING’]
B-30EU
A321neo
9254
ex B-005C, dd 18.09.20
Cathay Pacific Airways [CX/CPA ‘CATHAY’]
B-LQE
A350-900
401
ex F-WZFO, dd 10.09.20
B-LXM
A350-1000 380
ex F-WZGQ, dd 24.09.20
EVA Air [BR/EVA ‘EVA’]
B-17807
787-10
63514
dd 30.09.20
Air Canada [AC/ACA ‘AIR CANADA’]
C-GYJI
A220-300
55093
dd 30.09.20, fleet #110
Jazz Aviation (Air Canada Express) [QK/JZA ‘JAZZ’]
C-GJNZ
CRJ900
15489
ex C-GZQP, dd 04.10.20, fleet #725
C-GJUZ
CRJ900
15492
dd 03.10.20, fleet #726
Morningstar Air Express [-/MAL ‘MORNINGSTAR’]
ATR
C-FVDO
224
ex EI-FXG, reg’d 23.10.20
72-200(F)
North-Wright Airways [HW/NWL ‘NORTHWRIGHT’]
C-FWXL
Beech 1900D UE-5
ex N5YV, reg’d 23.10.20, lsd fr Beau Del Leasing
PAL Airlines [PB/PVL ‘PROVINCIAL’]
reg’d 07.10.20 to PAL Aerospace Ltd, bf NAV
C-GCFK
DHC 8-100
28
Canada
C-GPAO
DHC 8-400 4015
ex OE-LGB, reg’d 19.10.20
Transwest Air [4T/-]
C-FWWF
Beech 200
BB-374
ex N111UT, reg’d 06.10.20
C-FWWQ
Beech 200
BB-667
ex N667NA, reg’d 09.10.20
C-GDCG
Beech 1900D UE-368
ex N368DC, reg’d 20.10.20
C-GGCA
Beech 1900D UE-359
ex N31559, reg’d 28.09.20
C-GWWK
Beech 1900D UE-395
ex VH-RUI, reg’d 06.10.20
C-GWWV
Beech 200
BB-287
ex N498AC, reg’d 06.10.20
C-GYDQ
Beech 200
BB-455
ex N900DG, reg’d 07.10.20
JetSMART [JA/JAT ‘ROCKSMART’]
ex F-WWDY, dd 30.09.20, lsd fr SMBC Aviation
CC-AWP
A320neo
10069
Capital; Pato BancoEstado
Sky Airline [H2/SKU ‘AEROSKY’]
ex F-WWDL, dd 30.09.20, lsd fr China Aircraft
CC-AZV
A320neo
10111
Leasing Group
Bahamasair [UP/BHS ‘BAHAMASAIR’]
C6-BFY
737-700
30676
ex 2-AERJ, dd 14.10.20, lsd fr AerCap
AeroLogic [3S/BOX ‘GERMAN CARGO’]
D-AALO
777-F
66085
reg’d 08.04.20
Lufthansa [LH/DLH ‘LUFTHANSA’]
D-AIJA
A320neo
9555
ex D-AUBZ, dd 22.09.20; Bad Kissingen
D-AIJB
A320neo
9493
ex D-AXAJ, dd 14.09.20; Eschwege
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Lufthansa Cargo [LH/GEC ‘LUFTHANSA CARGO’]
D-ALFI
777F
66912
dd 28.09.20; ¡Buenos días Mexico!
Air Europa [UX/AEA ‘EUROPA’]
EC-NGS
787-9
65090
ex N8291V, dd 05.10.20, lsd fr AerCap
Iberia [IB/IBE ‘IBERIA’]
EC-NJY
A320neo
10135
ex F-WWIP, dd 15.09.20; #GRACIASHÉROES
Iberia Express [I2/IBS ‘IBEREXPRES’]
EC-NIF
A321neo
10025
ex D-AVXG, dd 04.09.20
Swiftair [WT/SWT ‘SWIFT’]
EC-NLS
737-400(F)
25856
ex G-JMCJ, dd 10.20, lsd fr/op for DHL
EC-NMK
737-400(F)
24959
ex G-JMCX, dd 29.10.20, lsd fr/op for DHL
EC-NML
737-400(F)
25859
ex G-JMCB, dd 27.10.20, lsd fr Automatic
Wamos Air [EB/PLM ‘PULLMAN’]
EC-MAJ
A330-243
992
ex A9C-KJ, dd 30.09.20, lsd fr AerCap
ASL Airlines Ireland [-/ABR ‘CONTRACT']
ex N541CC, reg’d 22.10.20, lsd fr Amazon.com
EI-DAC
737-800(BCF) 29938
& opf Prime Air
EI-DAD
737-800(BCF) 33544
ferried SNN-CGN 26.10.20 for entry into service
EI-DLO
737-800
34178
reg’d 30.10.20
reg’d 05.10.20, ferried PIK-TNA 06-07.20 for
EI-DLR
737-800
33596
cargo conversion
EI-HEA
A330-300(F) 116
ex B-LDO, reg’d 19.10.20, lsd fr/op for DHL
Aerotranscargo [F5/ATG ‘MOLDCARGO’]
ER-BBC
747-400(F)
24998
ex OM-ACB, dd 06.10.20
Regional Jet [EE/EST ‘REVAL’]
ex EI-GIV, dd 10.20, lsd fr GECAS, opf SAS
ES-ATJ
ATR 72-600 1056
Scandinavian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines [ET/ETH ‘ETHIOPIAN’]
ET-AXX
DHC 8-400 4615
ex C-GKXH, dd 23.10.20
ET-AXY
DHC 8-400 4617
ex C-GKYC, dd 23.10.20
AeroStan [-/BSC ‘BIG SHOT’]
A300B4EX-30002
141
ex UP-A3003, reg’d 03.09.20
200(F)
EX-47001
747-200B(F) 237375
ex UP-B4702, reg’d 21.10.20
EX-47002 747-200B(F) 23111
ex 4L-GEM, reg’d 21.10.20
Air Tetiaroa [-/-]
F-OKYB
DHC 6-300 636
ex HB-LRN, reg’d 29.07.20
HB-LRB
DHC 6-300 705
ex 5A-DBF, entered service 20.10.20
Air Alderney [-/-]
G-BLNI
BN-2B
2188
ex VP-FBI, reg’d 06.10.20
BA CityFlyer [CJ/CFE 'FLYER’]
G-LCAD
E190
19000535 ex EI-GSX, reg’d 15.10.20, lsd fr CDB Aviation
G-LCAE
E190
19000539 ex EI-GTF, reg’d 22.10.20, lsd fr CDB Aviation
Directflight [DCT ‘AIRTASK’]
G-HEBO
BN-2B
2268
ex JA5313, reg’d 15.09.20
easyJet Airline [U2/EZY ‘EASY’]
G-EZBJ
A319ceo
3036
ex OE-LKN, reg’d 09.10.20, lsd fr Aircastle
G-EZBT
A319ceo
3090
ex OE-LKE, reg’d 29.10.20, lsd fr Aircastle
G-EZBY
A319ceo
3176
ex OE-LQH, reg’d 19.10.20
G-EZGG
A319ceo
4640
ex HB-JYN, reg’d 05.10.20
G-EZOT
A320ceo
6680
ex OE-ICC, reg’d 27.10.20
G-EZOU
A320ceo
6754
ex OE-ICG, reg’d 12.10.20
G-EZOX
A320ceo
6837
ex OE-INQ, reg’d 15.10.20
Virgin Atlantic Airways [VS/VIR ‘VIRGIN’]
G-VDOT
A350-1000 71
ex F-WWXL, dd 04.09.20; Ruby Slipper
ex F-WZNY, dd 17.09.20 lsd fr Air Lease Corp;
G-VRNB
A350-1000 415
Purple Rain
Wizz Air Hungary [W6/WZZ ‘WIZZ AIR’]
ex A7-AFF, dd 18.10.20, opf Ministry of Foreign
HA-LHU
A330-200F 1578
Affairs and Trade
Swiss International Air Lines [LX/SWR ‘SWISS']
HB-JPA
A321neo
9417
ex D-AYAO, dd 17.09.20; Stoos
Zimex Aviation [XM/IMX ‘ZIMEX’]
HB-LWB
DHC 6-300 565
ex OY-NSB, reg’d 21.06.20 to DHC6 Invest ApS
AerCaribe [JK/ACL ‘ADMIRE’]
HK-5357
737-400(F)
24130
ex N721VX, dd 07.10.20, lsd fr Vx Capital
Wingo [P5/RPB ‘AEROREPUBLICA’]
HP-1711CMP 737-800
40663
dd 05.10.20
Korean Air [KE/KAL ‘KOREAN’]
OK-YBA
A330-300
425
ret fr CSA Czech Airlines lease, to be rr
flynas [XY/KNE ‘NAS EXPRESS’]
ex F-WWBU, dd 30.09.20, lsd fr CMB Financial
HZ-NS32
A320neo
10179
Leasing
EGO Airways [-/-]
I-EGOA
E190
19000165 ex D-AZFB, dd 22.10.20, lsd fr WDL Aviation
ANA – All Nippon Airways [NH/ANA ‘ALL NIPPON’]
JA142A
A321neo
9589
ex D-AVZV, dd 14.09.20
Oriental Air Bridge [OC/ORC ‘ORIENTAL BRIDGE’]
JA803B
DHC 8-200 529
ex C-GIWQ, dd 09.10.20
Peach [MM/APJ ‘AIR PEACH’]
JA201P
A320neo
10131
ex F-WXAU, dd 18.09.20
Holiday Europe [5Q/HES ‘HOLIDAY EUROPE’]
LZ-HEH
A321neo
7694
ex TE-OED, dd 26.10.20, sub-lsd fr Onur Air
LZ-HEI
A321neo
8085
ex TC-OEE, dd 26.10.20, sub-lsd fr Onur Air
Aero-Flite [-/-]
N377AC
Avro RJ85
E2346
ex EI-RJI, reg’d 26.10.20
Alaska Central Express [KO/AER ‘ACE AIR’]
N404GV
Beech 1900C UC-154
ex N154YV
N575A
Beech 1900C UC-83
ex N80334
N575Q
Beech 1900C UC-160
ex N160AM
N575Z
Beech 1900C UC-136
ex N21493
N815GV
Beech 1900C UC-78
ex N121WV
N970EA
Beech 1900C UC-100
ex 5Y-DHL
N974EA
Beech 1900C UC-114
ex 5Y-SGL
N1553C
Beech 1900C UC-24
ex N31226
N15503
Beech 1900C UC-72
American Airlines [AA/AAL ‘AMERICAN’]
N424AN
A321neo
10141
ex F-WZMU, dd 04.09.20, fleet #424
Ameriflight [A8/AMF ‘AMERIFLIGHT’]
N39UB
Beech 1900C UB-39
ex C-FJTF, reg’d 08.10.20
Asia Pacific Airlines (Aero Micronesia) [P9/MGE ‘MAGELLAN’]
N754CS
757-200PF
24845
ex ET-AJS, reg’d 07.10.20, bf CSDS Aircraft Sales
Bering Air [8E/BRG ‘BERING AIR’]
N171CJ
Beech 1900D UE-71
ex N172MJ, reg’d 28.10.20
Cape Air (Hyannis Air Service) [9K/KAP ‘CAIR’]
N785CA
P2012
021/US
reg’d 13.10.20
Commutair (United Express) [C5/UCA ‘COMMUTAIR’]
N11184
ERJ145
14500917
ex PT-SYX, dd 08.10.20, lsd fr United Airlines
N11189
ERJ145
14500931 ex PT-SCA, dd 08.10.20, lsd fr United Airlines
N12136
ERJ145
145719
ferried YQB-ALB 16.10.20 for entry into service
N13132
ERJ145
145708
ferried YQB-ALB 24.10.20 for entry into service
N14153
ERJ145
145761
ferried MCN-ALB 17.10.20 for entry into service
N21129
ERJ145
145703
ex PT-SGH, dd 24.09.20, lsd fr United Airlines
Delta Air Lines [DL/DAL ‘DELTA’]
N132DU
A220-100
50051
ex C-FOVK, dd 21.10.20, fleet #8132
N133DU
A220-100
50052
ex C-FOVP, dd 22.10.20, fleet #8133
N134DU
A220-100
50053
ex C-FOWQ, dd 28.10.20, fleet #8134
N135DQ
A220-100
50054
ex C-FOUY, dd 28.10.20, fleet #8135
N136DQ
A220-100
55055
ex C-FOVL, dd 28.10.20, fleet #8136
N137DU
A220-100
50056
ex C-FOWV, dd 29.10.20, fleet #8137
N138DU
A220-100
50057
ex C-FOWY, dd 23.10.20, fleet #8138
N302DU
A220-300
55070
ex C-GPCA, dd 22.10.20, fleet #8302
N303DU
A220-300
55075
ex C-GPNB, dd 23.10.20, fleet #8303
N304DU
A220-300
55080
ex C-GPVD, dd 26.10.20, fleet #8504
N305DU
A220-300
55084
ex C-GPVE, dd 30.10.20, fleet #8505
N105DX
A321ceo
10030
ex F-WZMV, dd 24.09.20, fleet #1005
N406DX
A330-900
1953
ex F-WWKE, dd 23.09.20, fleet #3406
N407DX
A330-900
1957
ex F-WWCN, dd 21.09.20, fleet #3407
N514DN
A350-900
395
ex F-WZGA, dd 15.09.20, fleet #3514
N515DN
A350-900
404
ex F-WZNO, dd 15.09.20, fleet #3515
Eastern Airlines [2D/EAL ‘EASTERN’]
ex HS-JAE, reg’d 15.10.20, bf Alta Airlines
N606KW
767-200
24324
Holdings, std FJR
ex HS-BKA, bf Alta Airlines Holdings 25.08.20,
N708KW
767-300ER
28148
std DMK
ex 5Y-KQS, reg’d 15.10.20, bf Alta Airlines
N783KW
777-200ER
33683
Holdings, std MCI
ex VP-BDX, reg’d 15.10.20, bf Jet Midwest
N821JT
777-200ER
28410
Group, std MCI
Endeavor Air [9E/EDV ‘ENDEAVOR’]
N291PX
CRJ900
15491
ex C-GZYK, dd 23.10.20
Envoy Air (American Eagle) [MQ/ENY ‘ENVOY’]
N293NN
E195
17000586 ex PR-EIM, dd 21.10.20, fleet #093
N298FR
E195
17000845 ex PR-EAF, dd 22.10.20, fleet #098
FedEx Express [FX/FDX ‘FEDEX’]
N272FE
767-300F
66242
dd 04.09.20; Mackenzie
N950FE
Cessna 208B 208B0056 ex C-FEXI, reg’d 16.10.20
Frontier Airlines [F9/FFT ‘FRONTIER FLIGHT’]
N372FR
A320neo
10119
ex F-WZMM, dd 10.09.20; Watson the Key Deer
Mesa Airlines [YV/ASH ‘AIR SHUTTLE’]
N305GT
737-400(F)
27674
ex N494SA, dd 30.10.20, lsd fr/op for DHL
N306GT
737-400(F)
27157
ex N495SA, dd 30.09.20, lsd fr/op for DHL
N78361
E175
17000855 ex PR-EBT, dd 02.10.20, fleet #361
N89362
E175
17000856 ex PR-EDJ, dd 01.10.20, fleet #362
N85363
E175
17000857 ex PR-EDK, dd 02.10.20, fleet #363
N87364
E175
17000858 ex PR-EEB, dd 02.10.20, fleet #364
N87365
E175
17000859 ex PR-EAC, dd 02.10.20, fleet #365
N82366
E175
17000860 ex PR-EAQ, dd 15.10.20, fleet #366
N87367
E175
17000861
ex PR-EAT, dd 15.10.20, fleet #367
N87368
E175
17000862 ex PR-EBV, dd 15.10.20, fleet #368
N85369
E175
17000863 ex PR-EBP, dd 15.10.20, fleet #369
N85370
E175
17000864 ex PR-EEC, dd 16.10.20, fleet #370
Omni Air Express [OY/OAE ‘OMNI EXPRESS’]
N486AX
767-300ER
30843
ex CN-RNT, reg’d 26.10.20, lsd fr GECAS
Planemaster Services [-/PMS ‘PLANEMASTER’]
N290PM
Beech 1900C UB-71
ex C-GCPZ, reg’d 01.10.20
N390PM
Beech 1900C UC-110
ex C-GIPC, reg’d 01.10.20
United Airlines [UA/UAL ‘UNITED’]
N25982
787-9
66139
dd 29.09.20, fleet #0982
N23983
787-9
66140
dd 29.09.20, fleet #0983
N29984
787-9
66143
dd 30.09.20, fleet #0984
UPS – United Parcel Service [5X/UPS ‘UPS’]
N622UP
747-8F
65784
dd 03.09.20
Finnair [AY/FIN ‘FINNAIR’]
OH-LWR
A350-900
410
ex F-WZGV, dd 01.10.20
ASL Airlines Belgium [3V/TAY ‘QUALITY’]
OE-IFM
747-400F
36785
ex VQ-BIA, reg’d 15.10.20
OE-LFE
757-200(F)
25622
ex N757AS, reg’d 22.10.20
Copenhagen AirTaxi [-/CAT ‘AIRCAT’]
ex C-GBVU, dd 08.10.20, lsd fr Avmax Aircraft
OY-MIL
CRJ200
7391
Leasing, op for Global Reach Aviation; Mille
Batik Air [ID/BTK ‘BATIK’]
ex 9M-LCJ, lsd fr DAE Capital, entered service
PK-LZV
737-800
39831
07.10.20
Rimbun Air [-/-]
PK-OTJ
DHC 6 400
857
ex PK-CDW, dd 09.20
Azul Linhas Aéreas [AD/AZU ‘AZUL’]
PS-AEE
E190-E2
19020032 dd 29.10.20
CTA – Cleiton Táxi Aéreo [-/-]
PS-CTZ
Cessna 208B 208B5586 lsd fr Textron Financial Corp
Transportes Bertolini [-/-]
PS-TBL
Cessna 208B 208B5566 ex N466TW
Air Sanga [-/-]
P2-ASL
DHC 6 200 219
ex P2-MCR
Columbia Helicopters [-/-]
P2-CHK
Boeing 234 MJ-006
ex N239CH
Heli Niugini [-/-]
P2-HBD
Mi-8
95607
ex RA-25463
Hevilift PNG [IU/-]
P2-KSA
ATR 72-500 639
ex F-WTBD, dd 01.19, lsd fr Elix Aviation
P2-KSB
DHC 6-300 485
ex VH-RPU
P2-KSG
DHC 6-300 509
ex VH-YWJ
Link PNG [-/-]
P2-ANK
DHC 8-200 461
ex C-GFBW, tfd fr Air Niugini
ex C-GRGK, lsd fr Avmax Aircraft Leasing, tfd fr
P2-ANL
DHC 8-200 522
Air Niugini
P2-ANM
DHC 8-300 523
ex D-CPAD, tfd fr Air Niugini
P2-ANN
DHC 8-300 401
ex JY-RWB, tfd fr Air Niugini
P2-ANO
DHC 8-300 252
ex D-BOBU, tfd fr Air Niugini
P2-ANP
DHC 8-300 414
ex C-FXVD, tfd fr Air Niugini
P2-PXI
DHC 8-200 460
ex C-GHQO, tfd fr Air Niugini
ex C-GFOV, lsd fr Nordic Aviation Capital, tfd fr
P2-PXQ
DHC 8-400 4196
Air Niugini
ex OY-YCY, lsd fr Nordic Aviation Capital, tfd fr
P2-PXR
DHC 8-400 4184
Air Niugini
North Coast Aviation [-/-]
P2-ISM
BN-2A
227
ex P2-NAV, bf National Aviation Services
P2-SAM
BN-2B
2197
ex P2-ENB, bf National Aviation Services
Aeroflot Russian Airlines [SU/AFL ‘AEROFLOT’]
ex N1781B, dd 01.10.20, lsd fr Avia Capital
VQ-BVU
737-800
41202
Solutions; V. Shukhov
Red Wings Airlines [WZ/RWZ ‘REMONT AIR’]
RA-89137
RRJ95
95183
ex 97020, dd 13.10.20, lsd fr GTLK
RA-89138 RRJ95
95187
ex 97019, dd 08.10.20
Ural Airlines [U6/SVR ‘SVERDLOVSK AIR’]
VP-BVF
A321ceo
4277
ex VN-A366, dd 25.10.20, lsd fr AerCap
VP-BVR
A321ceo
4213
ex VN-A365, dd 05.10.20, lsd fr AerCap
SAS Scandinavian Airlines [SK/SAS ‘SCANDINAVIAN’]
ex EI-GIV, dd 28.10.20, lsd fr/op by Regional Jet;
ES-ATJ
ATR 72-600 1056
Njal Viking
SE-DYM
A320neo
7979
ex EI-SIC, reg’d 14.10.20
SE-RUB
A320neo
9518
ex D-AXAK, dd 01.09.20, lsd fr Air Lease Corp
West Atlantic Sweden [-/SWN ‘AIR SWEDEN’]
SE-RLM
737-800(BCF) 32615
ex G-NPTD, lsd fr GECAS
Aegean Airlines [A3/AEE ‘AEGEAN’]
SX-NAA
A321neo
9553
ex D-AVYL, dd 30.09.20
Turkish Airlines [TK/THY ‘TURKISH’]
TC-LLN
787-9
65813
dd 30.09.20
TC-LLO
787-9
65814
dd 30.09.20
TC-LSV
A321neo
9496
ex D-AYAU, dd 02.09.20
Air Atlanta Icelandic [CC/ABD ‘ATLANTA’]
TF-AAD
747-400
28426
ferried GBA-DSA 31.10.20 for ret to service
Belau Air [-/-]
T8A-208
BN-2A
755
ex RP-C809
We welcome
any feedback
on this listing.
(The listing is alphabetical
with reference to the
registration of the country
of origin. Columns indicate
the registration, type,
construction number and
notes.)
Peach received its maiden
Airbus A320neo during
September. The Japanese
carrier has 28 examples
on order as well as six
commitments for the larger
A321LR type AIRBUS
www.key.aero
83
Great Christmas gift ideas
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its variants, and its
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Legend celebrates the
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one of the most iconic
aircraft.
Special magazine,
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This new publication
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25/11/2020 11:52
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London Heathrow Calendar
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Featuring 12 superb images from London Heathrow Airport,
this high-quality calendar is the perfect accompaniment to
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25/11/2020 11:52
CAMO
commitment
confirmed
The latest
news from
maintenance,
repair and
overhaul
providers
FlightSense on-site
services expanded
Collins Aerospace Systems and GKN
Fokker Services have expanded
their existing ten-year FlightSense
on-site support agreement, covering
the former’s integrated drive
generator (IDG) units.
The new agreement, announced on
October 26, now includes IDG part
numbers fitted to Airbus A320neo
aircraft and will continue to see
Collins Aerospace managing GKN
Fokker’s on-site inventory of IDG
components. GKN Fokker Services
will now be capable of repairing
A320neo IDG units at its facility at
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
Ryan Hudson, Collins Aerospace’s
vice president, aftermarket,
power and controls, said: “This
agreement will help Fokker Services
streamline supply chain operations,
increase repair reliability and lower
operational cost to better serve its
customers with quality repairs of
Collins aerospace products.”
Fokker Services will support airlines
and MROs with solutions for IDG
units, including OEM parts and
warranty, 24/7 customer service
representatives, reliability monitoring
and inventory exchange services.
(Photo Airbus)
OGMA invests €74m
Portuguese MRO company OGMA has
become an authorised maintenance
centre for Pratt & Whitney
powerplants. As a result, OGMA
has invested €74m in developing
the capability to support the engine
manufacturer’s PW1100G-JM geared
turbo fan (GTF), which powers the
Airbus A220 and Embraer’s E190-E2
and E195-E2 airframes.
OGMA is part of the Embraer Group
and the newly authorised maintenance
centre has been developed with the
support of the Brazilian manufacturer
over the past 12 months. This marks
the entry of Pratt & Whitney into the
maintenance, repair and overhaul
sector in Portugal.
The contract between Pratt &
Whitney and OGMA was announced
on November 12, clearing the way for
86
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
an industrialisation and training
project to perform maintenance of
the PW1100G-JM engine, the first
of which is expected to commence
overhaul early in 2021.
Dave Emmerling, vice president of
commercial aftermarket for Pratt &
Whitney, said: “We are excited to
welcome OGMA to the GTF MRO
network. With OGMA we add a highly
capable maintenance provider with
a long history of engine overhaul
experience. As the GTF fleet
continues to grow, the network will
be ready to support our expanding
global customer base.”
OGMA was founded in 1918. Since
being privatised in 2005, it has
been owned by Embraer subsidiary
Airholding SPS (65%) and idD Portugal
Defence (35%). (Photo Embraer)
Estonia’s Magnetic MRO has
signed a continuing airworthiness
management organisation
(CAMO) service agreement with
regional aircraft leasing company,
TrueNoord, which includes the
redelivery of two Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries (formerly Bombardier)
CRJ900 aircraft from a previous
operator. Also part of the deal,
signed at the end of September
and announced by both companies
on November 4, are the provision
of all engineering services related
to maintaining the aircraft in
airworthy condition.
The jets have already arrived at
Magnetic MRO’s facility in Tallinn
and are currently in long-term
storage. Before being ferried from
the previous operator’s base at
Copenhagen/Kastrup, Magnetic
personnel performed a detailed
redelivery inspection of the interior
and exterior of the two CRJ900s.
Janno Väinola, Magnetic MRO
senior airworthiness engineer,
commented: “It’s well known
that this year – due to the global
pandemic – aviation companies
are facing challenges every step
of the way but, as Winston
Churchill said, ‘never waste a
good crisis’. So, we need to adapt
to the current situation and come
out stronger than ever [and] we
are happy to have TrueNoord as
our client...
“They have a fast-growing fleet
that already includes many aircraft
leased all over the world to wellknown operators, and we see this
agreement as just the start of our
co-operation,” added Väinola.
(Photo Magnetic MRO)
Legacy 600 refurbishment
programme completed
MAC Aero Interiors announced on
November 10 that it has completed
a full VIP interior refurbishment on
a pair of Embraer Legacy 600s for
an unnamed private charter flight
management company.
The two aircraft had been delivered
to parent company Magnetic MRO’s
facility in Tallinn, Estonia in September
and prior to the interior refurbishment,
were given an executive-style finish
in the firm’s paint hangar. The work
included refurbishing the cabin seats,
divan covers and cushions in a design
tailored specifically for the customer.
The aircraft lavatories were also
refurbished and the carpet replaced
throughout the cabin.
Marko Männiste, MAC Aero Interiors
managing director, said: “Working
on private jets is challenging and
exciting at the same time. We are
able to provide one-stop solutions for
clients when it comes to maintenance,
overhaul, painting, design, as well
as certification, material sampling,
manufacturing and installation. We are
able to tackle challenges and offer the
client multiple services in one location
which, in cases like this, proves to be a
great advantage.”
(Photo MAC Interiors)
EME Aero accomplishes
first GTF shop visits
EME Aero has announced completion
of the first regular maintenance visits
of Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM
Geared Turbo Fan (GTF) engines.
The first GTF powerplant arrived
at EME Aero’s facility in Jasionka,
Poland, last January as part of Pratt
& Whitney’s low-pressure turbine
(LPT) retrofit programme, before a
total of 15 engines were re-delivered
to different customers by November.
In addition to the LPT retrofit
programme, EME Aero has also
completed regular shop visits on a
further six GTF engines.
Robert Maślach, chief operating
officer and managing director of
EME Aero, said around 400
employees have trained at the
company’s centre and at the
locations of two joint venture
partners in Germany and “are now
ready to carry out full repairs on the
PW1100G-JM”. He added: “We are
optimistic about our future.”
A joint venture between Lufthansa
Technik and MTU Aero Engines, EME
Aero is now an official member of
Pratt & Whitney’s GTF MRO network.
The company’s next objective is to
implement a high-tech flow line at its
facility, ready for the induction of the
first PW1500G engine by the middle
of next year.
Engine stand
tracking
system
upgraded
Magnetic MRO subsidiary,
EngineStands24, has upgraded
its engine stand tracking system,
adding new devices to its current
pool of powerplant support
equipment, including stands for
Pratt & Whitney PW4000-94 and
Rolls-Royce Trent 700 examples.
The new tracking capability allows
EngineStands24 and its customers
to monitor the engine stand in
real time, including when it is
transported. Other sensors also
measure the temperature of the
location at which each engine stand
is stored, with further plans to add
a dedicated tracking platform to
the company’s website, allowing
customers to follow the powerplant
throughout its loan period.
Daiva Zemaite, head of
EngineStands24, said: “Engine
stands are slightly under-rated, until
they are needed. And when such
a need occurs, it is quite often [in]
an AOG [aircraft on ground] case,
therefore knowing the location of
the stand can be vital in terms of
planning the engine transfer and
maintenance, as it allows customers
to predict the time of the delivery.
“In addition, with the newly added
tracking system, our customers will
receive valuable information on its
storage, vibrations when the engine
is on the stand en route and other
features, which all [contribute] to the
customer’s convenience,” Zemaite
added. (Photo EngineStands24)
The latest
news from
maintenance,
repair and
overhaul
providers
ST Engineering restructures
ST Engineering is restructuring its
organisation into commercial, defence
and public security clusters.
From January 1, 2021 the new
organisation will replace the existing
sector structure – which includes
aerospace, electronics, land systems
and marine – to better align with the
company’s global growth strategy
and strengthen its customer focus.
The ‘commercial cluster’ will include
commercial aerospace, urban solutions
and satellite communications domains
known as ‘Global Business Areas’
(GBA). The commercial aerospace GBA
will include the existing aerostructures
and systems, MRO and aviation asset
management businesses.
The newly created ‘Group
Technology’ and ‘Group Engineering
Centre’ will focus on innovation.
CEO Vincent Chong said: “The
impetus for this reorganisation was our
desire to achieve global success, but
COVID-19 has reinforced the need for
change with fresh urgency.”
MRO News by Nigel Pittaway
www.key.aero
87
Preserving
Commercial
Aviation’s
Past
Former Sibaviatrans Tupolev
Tu-134 RA-69654 on its way
to its new home at Aerodrom
Oreshkovo AKTUĞ ATEŞ
Relocation relocation relocation
for estate agents’ Tu-134
A former Aeroflot and Sibaviatrans
Tupolev Tu-134B, RA-65694 (c/n
63235) has been acquired for
preservation by Albatros-Aero at
Aerodrom Oreshkovo, near Moscow.
Built by Kharkiv State Aircraft
Manufacturing Company in what
is now Ukraine, the Tupolev was
delivered to Aeroflot’s Latvian arm as
USSR-65694 and placed into service
on May 24, 1980. After the restoration
of Latvia’s independence in 1991,
the Tu-134 was one of 36 aircraft
transferred to Latavio, the Baltic
republic’s newly created state-owned
airline. It was reregistered YL-LBD in
line with its move to the carrier.
Latavio was shut down in 1996
after an attempt to privatise it failed.
The Tupolev next found work in
Kazakhstan, operating on behalf of
Bristow Helicopters Kazakhstan as
UN-65694. By November 2000, it had
returned to the Russian flag carrier on
lease from Torginvest, but was retired
during 2007 as it phased out its entire
Tu-134 fleet by January 1, 2008; a
UTair crash on March 17, 2007, killing
six people, prompted then-minister
of transport Igor Levitin to pressure
airlines to expedite its retirement.
The Soloviev D-30-powered
jet quickly joined the fleet of
Krasnoyarsk/Yemelyanovo-based
Sibaviatrans, but its time in Siberia
was short as its operator suspended
operations in September 2008 after
the collapse of the AiRUnion airline
alliance. Due to the type’s diminished
popularity, it was stored at Moscow/
Domodedovo, having accumulated
25,739 flying hours. In 2015 it was
moved by road to Aviapark, Russia’s
biggest shopping centre, built on the
site of the former Khodynka Airport.
It was put outside the mall to serve
as an estate agents’ office and was
painted blue to advertise nearby flats.
Work to prepare the Tu-134 for
transport by road to Oreshkovo began
in 2019 and the fuselage arrived at
its new home 108 miles southwest of
the capital on November 10. It joins an
Ilyushin Il-14, Tupolev Tu-104, Yakovlev
Yak-40, a quartet of Mil helicopters
and several MiG and Sukhoi fast jets.
Oreshkovo is also famous as the home
of Mansur, an orphaned brown bear
raised by pilots at the airfield.
Airliner World would like to thank
Aktuğ Ateş for his help with this story.
RJ85 hops fence and drops into
Norwich museum
Former CityJet BAE Systems
Avro RJ85, EI-RJN (c/n
E2351), is the first example
of the type to be preserved
RICHARD FLAGG
88
Former CityJet Avro RJ85, EI-RJN (c/n
2351), has become the first example of
its type to be preserved, having joined
the City of Norwich Aviation Museum
collection on October 31.
Making its final journey from Norwich
Airport to the attraction in the early
hours, the Woodford, Cheshire-built
95-seat regional jet was lifted over the
airfield perimeter fence and into the
museum site after a brief stop on the
A1270 Norwich Northern Distributor
Road separating the facilities.
The 26th of 36 examples to be
operated by Mesaba Airlines on behalf
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
of Northwest Airlink, the Honeywell LF
507-powered jet made its first flight on
May 17, 1999 and was delivered eight
days later as N526XJ.
Between 2006-2008, then-Air France
regional subsidiary, CityJet acquired
half the Mesaba Airlines Avro fleet
as the Northwest Airlink operator
became drawn into the Delta Air
Lines-Northwest Airlines merger,
eventually ceasing operations in 2012.
N526XJ became EI-RJN with CityJet
in January 2007. It spent the next 12
years with the Dublin-based carrier
and its final six months connecting
its home base with London/City on
behalf of Aer Lingus. It was retired to
Norwich on February 16, 2019.
City of Norwich Aviation Museum
plays host to one of, if not the largest
collections of turboprop airliners
in the UK, exhibiting former Air UK
Handley Page Dart Herald, G-ASKK
(c/n 161) and two Fokker F-27 variants
flown by the carrier – G-BCDN (c/n
10201) and G-BHMY (c/n 10196).
Plans for the jet were unknown at
the time of going to press.
FlyBy swoops to the rescue
FlyBy Aviation Academy has increased
its student cohort, taking in cadets
who had been dropped mid-way
through their course by another flight
school. So far, 30 students have now
resumed studies with the Spanish
operator, with another 30 expected to
follow soon.
It comes after an unnamed company
reportedly terminated the studies of
120 cadets due to financial constraints
brought on by the COVID-19 crisis.
FlyBy stepped in to provide an
alternative training option at its
facilities and has opened a second
pilot training base in the northern
Spanish city of Soria to cater for the
increased demand. The new location
enjoys year-round sunshine and has a
pair of runways, providing unrestricted
University
pilot
programme
takes off
Skyborne Airline Academy has
partnered with the University of
West London (UWL), allowing
academy students to obtain a
degree during their pilot studies.
Those who undertake a Skyborne
EASA/UKCAA-integrated
or combined modular ATPL
programme – which includes the
multi-engine piston class rating
(MEP) and commercial pilots
licence instrument rating (CPL IR)
course with airline pilot standard
multi-crew co-operation (APS
MCC) – can simultaneously gain a
BSc in Aviation Management with
Commercial Pilot Training. The
university students would gain
academic credits from several
modules, including ‘The Aviation
Experience’, ‘Research Methods’
and ‘Management of Risk and
Sustainable Aviation’.
Lee Woodward, Skyborne CEO,
said: “Skyborne graduates will
begin their career as a commercial
pilot with additional management
and business skills. The degree
programme will help our graduates
stand out from their peers.”
(Photo Skyborne Airline Academy)
airspace for flying. Bosses at FlyBy
plan to add new ground school and
simulator capabilities over the coming
months. The academy recently bought
six aircraft – four PS28 Cruisers, a
P2006T and a Super Decathlon – plus
an Entrol Airbus A320 simulator.
Alex Alvarez, CEO of FlyBy, said:
“We look at the future with optimism,
despite the current situation caused by
the pandemic. We have no doubt that
the aviation industry will bounce back,
and we want to be fully prepared for
it.” In total, FlyBy has 220 cadets, 19
aircraft and a pair of A320 simulators.
(Photo FlyBy Aviation Academy)
The latest
training aids
available for
the aviation
professional
BAA Training Vietnam
gains new approval
The Civil Aviation Authority of
Vietnam (CAAV) has granted
certification to BAA Training Vietnam
for ‘upset prevention and recovery
training’ (UPRT) – the first in the
country. According to the flight
training provider, exposing aircrew
to the UPRT “enhances a pilot‘s
competencies as well as raising the
level of flight safety”.
The core focus of training material
comprises: the factors that lead to an
upset condition; spatial orientation;
unusual attitude recovery and spin
recognition and recovery. Owing to
the new procedures, flight training
devices have been updated with the
latest specifications which include
guidance on stall model evaluation.
The hope is that such simulators
would “adequately represent an
aircraft's characteristics during an
aerodynamic stall” therefore helping
pilots adapt to such scenarios.
(Photo BAA Training)
King Air 360 aircrews
get tuition in Tampa
Pilot training on the Beechcraft
King Air 360 is now available from
FlightSafety Textron Aviation Training
at its Tampa Learning Centre in
Florida. Through its Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) Level D-qualified
simulator, aircrews can train
extensively on the type.
They can learn about advanced
auto-throttles that give “precision
control” for an optimised power output
and providing protection against
over-torque/temperature. The new
type also has the latest Collins
Aerospace Pro Line Fusion avionics
suite and features an integrated flap
and pressurisation system indications
in a single multi-function display, thus
helping to reduce pilot workload.
The company already offers training
at Tampa on older models of the
King Air – such as the 250 and 350
– and the Citation business jet family
(including the Citation M2, Citation
XLS+ and Citation Longitude).
(Photo Textron Aviation)
www.key.aero
89
We hope you enjoyed your
second set of retro airline
tickets, included with this issue
Did you miss the first set of tickets?
Order your December issue now at:
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DON’T FORGET!
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tickets are exclusive to
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25/11/2020 12:15
Blocked pitot probe causes
A321 RTO at V1
The crew of a Wizz Air Airbus A321ceo
was forced to reject a take-off (RTO)
at high speed in June after noticing
one of the jet’s airspeed indicators
(ASI) was reading zero. The aircraft,
G-WUKJ (c/n 8879) – which had
been parked for nearly 12 weeks at
Doncaster/Sheffield prior to the flight
– was being repositioned on a nonrevenue service to London/Stansted.
A report by the Air Accidents
Investigation Branch (AAIB) found
that after applying take-off power, the
commander recalled that his primary
flight display (PFD) trend arrow
indicated increasing airspeed but as
the aircraft continued to accelerate,
his attention was drawn to a number
of birds in the take-off path. When he
returned his view to the instruments,
the ASI was reading zero.
The AAIB said the captain
immediately cross checked with the
first officer and called to reject the
take-off. Maximum reverse thrust and
automatic braking were applied, and
the aircraft came to a stop on the
runway. The pilot reported that the
take-off was rejected at 120kts, which
also happened to be V1. Data from the
flight recorder showed the jet reached
a peak airspeed of approximately
128kts, this occurred one second after
the crew initiated the stopping action.
The report said the aircraft was
left in long-term parking in a ‘flightready’ condition in accordance with
regulations. In the days leading up to
its departure on June 16, maintenance
personnel at the facility carried out a
DATE
Oct-23
Oct-29
Oct-30
Nov-05
Nov-13
REG'N
JA845A
N706MC
PR-LMP
LV-VDJ
RA-82042
C/N
4096
883
50000094
AC-729
9773054055093
work package to return it to service.
The post flight report produced a
failure message associated with a
flight control ECAM warning in the
number 1 air data reference (ADR1)
computer. During troubleshooting
over the following days, three small
insect larvae, approximately the size
of a grain of rice, were found within
the number 1 pitot probe. These larvae
were liberated whilst performing a
pitot probe flush but were not retained
to enable identification of species.
The operator concluded that the
insect larvae may have found their
way into the pitot probe whilst it was
parked, despite the covers being
fitted. The covers supplied by the
manufacturer do not seal to prevent
differential pressure measurement
Reports
and details
of recent
incidents
issues in the air data system, which
could cause inadvertent deployment
of the ram air turbine on the ground.
The AAIB’s report said Wizz Air has
introduced a requirement to flush all
total and static pressure lines before
any aircraft is returned to operation
after being parked for more than three
days. The airline is also looking to
acquire better pitot covers that may
offer increased protection compared
with those currently in use.
For Airbus’ part, it is looking to
update the ‘return to operation’
section in the aircraft maintenance
manual to require air data system
flushing prior to the resumption of
operations after a prolonged period
on the ground. (Photo Wikimedia
Commons/Anna Zvereva)
The aircraft was
being repositioned to
London/Stansted
MAG
TYPE
Bombardier Dash 8
Britten-Norman Islander
Embraer Phenom 100
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner
Antonov An-124-100
OPERATOR
Oriental Air Bridge
St Bernard Parish Government
TRACBEL
Dos Mil Aerosistema SA
Volga-Dnepr Airlines
FATALITIES
0
0
0
0
0
LOCATION
Japan
USA
Brazil
Argentina
Russia
NOTES
Hard landing and tail strike
Damaged during Hurricane Zeta
Crashed on landing attempt
Runway excursion
Damaged during emergency landing
www.key.aero
91
Information for
the traveller.
Letters to the editor
REDGEOGRAPHICS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Dear editor,
I particularly enjoyed the article in
the July 2020 edition about Mokulele
Airlines in Hawaii. It brought back very
fond memories about a trip I did with
a group of fellow aircraft enthusiasts
in 1999.
Having decided to try to fly as much
as possible in a limited period – we
looked at the Continental Micronesia
(CO) ‘Island Hopper’ from Guam to
Honolulu return. We also found that
there was a great flying opportunity
within the Hawaiian Islands using
a seven-day unlimited flying pass,
that was available through Hawaiian
Airlines (HA) or Aloha Airlines (AQ) and
cost just US$286.11.
We started our journey in Cairns,
Queensland, and flew to Guam on a
CO 727-200. The Island Hopper was
also on a CO 727-200, with Guam
to Honolulu comprising six sectors.
The return was also on a 727-200 but
comprised seven sectors.
We landed on some of the most
amazing airport runways – either being
very short or sticking out into the
ocean on coral reefs as most Islands
were volcanic mountains with very little
flat land.
You could almost smell the aircraft
brakes as pulling up fast was the order
of the day. The captain had to give the
92
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
engines ‘the works’ when taking off.
My half of the group (six in total – all
airline staff or travel agents) decided
we would use the Aloha pass during
our stay in Hawaii, and during the
seven-day period, clocked up a total
of 23 sectors – including 11 in just one
day! We travelled mainly on 737-200s
with some others on Dash 8-100/300s.
It was notable that the special
passes were withdrawn quite soon
after we arrived home – we certainly
made good use of them – taking full
advantage of the system.
I believe that the Island Hopper (up to
COVID-19 at least), was operated by a
United Airlines 737-800s, as of course
UA took over CO sometime ago now.
Keep up with the great work!
Peter Watson, Western Australia
Ed: Thanks for sharing your fascinating
insights Peter. You’re absolutely right,
United Airlines picked up the baton
from Continental following the merger
and continues to operate Island
Hopper lifeline routes up to three times
weekly. It is definitely going on my
to-fly list once normality resumes!
Dear editor,
I recently purchased your October
souvenir edition and must congratulate
you on an excellent publication. I have
a particular soft spot for 747s as we
have flown to Miami regularly every
October for 30 years, except this year
due to COVID-19 – we were booked
on a BA 747 until only a few weeks
ago when the flight was cancelled. It is
therefore very sad that I have already
flown on my final BA 747 as BA has
been forced to retire the whole fleet
earlier than planned.
I have been looking through my old
photos and thought you might like
this image I took as we were about to
land at Heathrow on board G-CIVN
on November 10, 2018. I took it on
my iPhone 7 and was photographing
the parked Concorde but realised
that I had captured virtually the whole
shadow of our aircraft in the early
morning sun. I thought it was rather
unusual and now very topical.
The other photo (left) is from the
ground as we boarded our G-CIVM
Miami flight from Terminal 5 in October
2011. The shuttle train was not working
so we were bussed a couple of miles
around the airport to reach the aircraft
parked opposite! We then boarded
from the tarmac, which made me
realise how large the 747s really are.
It seemed odd that we had to climb
stairs onto the aircraft at Heathrow’s
newest terminal…
Richard Thorne
Dear editor,
I read with great interest the article on
British Airways Boeing 747s (October
2020). But something caught my eye,
G-BNLL 747-436 was missing from the
list. This poor aircraft met its fate in a
ground incident at OR Tambo Airport,
Johannesburg, on December 22, 2013
when it was damaged beyond repair
in collision with a building. It was sadly
broken up the following year.
Julian Gladwin
Into the ALW archive
Information for
the traveller.
Ed: Thanks for getting in touch Julian.
Well spotted – an oversight on our part
which we are happy to correct.
Dear editor,
Within the feature titled "The SingleAisle Space Race" (October), several
airline managers and respective
consultants point to the concept of
long-haul flights with single-aisle jets
as being the way to new revenue. They
only see the lower seat-mile-costs of
these planes. I wonder whether they
also consider that the cargo capacity
of such aircraft is rather marginal and
that many passengers are willing to pay
a bit more for their tickets in order to
avoid sitting for six or more hours in a
cramped narrowbody seat?
Bernd Arzner
David Pitt has been in touch via
Twitter (@_AirlinerWorld) to share
his impressive collection of Airliner
World back issues. The catalogue
starts with our very first edition
in 1999. As David suggests: “A lot
has happened and changed in the
industry we love so much. Let’s hope
2021 brings better news for us all.” In
these challenging times, that’s one
thing we can all agree on. Thanks for
being such a loyal reader David!
Never too old to go to uni...
The oldest British Aerospace 146-200
passenger aircraft in Europe made
its final flight on October 22 after 35
years in airline service. The aircraft
G-SMLA (c/n 2047) was operated by
JOTA Aviation at Southend Airport
and ferried to Cranfield University,
Bedfordshire, as a ground instruction
airframe for aviation courses.
The example was originally
delivered to Pacific Southwest Airlines
as N364PS in December 1985 and
in 1996 was acquired by Flightline,
being registered as G-OZRH. It was
then leased by a number of airlines
including CityJet Ireland, Lufthansa
CityLine, Croatia Airlines, Air France
and Air Dolomiti before being placed
into storage at Southend in 2008.
In August 2014, it was bought by
JOTA Aviation and became their first
passenger airliner. It was registered
as G-SMLA and configured into a
95-seat economy passenger airliner
remaining in service with them until
October 2020. JOTA Aviation is a
specialist charter and cargo airline
that also operates a mixed fleet of
Avro RJ85s and RJ100 aircraft.
While JOTA closed its Southend
base and set up a new hub at
London Biggin Hill in Kent in October,
it is understood that the firm’s
maintenance base will remain at the
Essex airport.
Story and image by Simon Murdoch
www.key.aero
93
Information for
the traveller.
Suggested reading...
Royal Vikings – Günter Endres
While Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
had just as much right to celebrate its
centenary in 2019 as British Airways
did, the 100th anniversary of Det
Danske Luftfartsetskab’s (DDL), the
company that eventually became SAS,
went largely unmarked.
Positioned between DDL’s 100th and
Scandinavian Airlines’ 75th this coming
August and published by European
Airlines, Royal Vikings is a detailed
account of the tri-national titan and
its Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
predecessors.
The book begins by detailing the
fledgling DDL and its initial difficulties
trying to develop a fleet – having had
a Friedrichshafen FF 49C confiscated
because its transfer from Germany
had breached the Versailles Treaty, it
dredged a former military example out
of the Øresund and built another.
Author Günter Endres continues
through the Danish carrier’s history,
including its use of the Focke Wulf
FW 200 Condor, before shining his
spotlight on Norway’s Det Norske
Luftfartselskap (DNL) and Sweden’s
AB Aerotransport; in 1946 the trio
joined forces, echoing the Kalmar
Union of 1397-1523 under which
the three nations had been united.
Histories of other operators, such as
Spanair, Thai Airways International,
Greenlandair and Scanair are also
touched upon, as well as regional and
low-cost subsidiaries and Hoverfly, the
company’s hovercraft operation.
The vast wealth of archive imagery,
which dates to the formative years
of the three carriers, is enhanced by
period advertising, colour profiles
and tables outlining each of the
airlines’ fleets as well as operational
statistics detailing passenger numbers
and freight tonnage.
Details: 262-page hardback book
containing 319 photographs and 37
colour profiles
Author: Günter Endres
ISBN: 978-82-93450-09-2
Publisher: European Airlines
(Rob Mulder)
Price: £26.34 (NOK316.00)
Web: www.europeanairlines.no
Air 747 – Experiencing the
Passion: Boeing’s Jumbo Jet
– Sam Chui and Charles Kennedy
Those familiar with Chui and Kennedy’s
three earlier books – Air 1, Air 2 and
Air 3 – will feel right at home with this
fourth addition to the series which
combines fantastic photography with
onboard experiences and anecdotes.
However, despite the book starting with
a detailed look at the history of Boeing,
the road to the 747 and the jumbo’s
service career, the facts dry up as Chui
94
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
recounts trips on a variety of variants
and airlines. Insights into the operations
of Qatar Airways Cargo and All Nippon
Airways’ domestic 747-400Ds as well
as visits on board 747-400s and SPs
of the Kuwaiti and Qatari royal families,
are diminished slightly by Chui recalling
arguments between passengers and
crews on delayed flights, catering options
and tellings-off from airport staff.
That said, this is a well-rounded
account of the 747’s recent past
– including long-retired examples
flown by the likes of One-Two-Go,
Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines,
United Airlines and Syrian Air –
although it is inclined to stray into
photo album territory in places.
A seasoned enthusiast could spot
the gaps in Air 747’s armour, but for a
casual fan or those familiar with Chui’s
YouTube antics, it provides a very
welcome insight into the breadth
and depth of commercial Boeing
747 operations.
Details: 176-page hardback book
Authors: Sam Chui and
Charles Kennedy
ISBN: 978-09-93260-49-0
Publisher: Astral Horizon
Price: £25.00
Web: www.theairlineboutique.co.uk
Competition
time!
Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed
a solitary letter adorning the reverse of
each retro ticket. To be in with a chance
of winning a copy of the Tickets Please!
book, be sure to note down each letter.
There are 12 letters in total – including
the final three from the subscriber-only
batch – which can be assembled to spell
out the names of two capital cities. For
full details of the competition
and how to enter, please
turn to page 56.
TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CONTACT: ANDY MASON
• Tel: +44(0)1780 663011 Ext. 150 • Email: andrew.mason@keypublishing.com
FEBRUARY 2021... Copy Deadline: Tuesday 15th December • On-sale: Thursday 14th January
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95
23/11/2020 14:58:13
No
time
Toulouse
The rapid rise of Airbus
Half a century since the Airbus consortium was founded in December 1970, Airliner World
looks back at the pan-European manufacturer’s first aircraft – the A300 – and the challenges,
technical, logistical and political, it had to overcome in laying the foundations for what is now
the world’s biggest commercial aircraft producer
A
s Concorde and the
Boeing 747 rubbed
shoulders for the first
time at the 1969 Paris Air
Show, Jean Chamant,
then French Minister of Transport,
and Karl Schiller, Germany’s Minister
of Economic Affairs, launched a
pan-European widebody aircraft
programme. While astronaut Neil
Armstrong’s ‘one small step’ was still
96
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
some months away, Chamant and
Schiller were taking a giant leap into
the unknown.
It would take two-and-a-half years
for the airliner to gain its first order
and a further 12 months for the jet
to fly. Even at that point – as the first
prototype took off on October 28, 1972
– the risks involved were plain for all
to see. The gamble didn’t just pay off,
it changed the Boeing-dominated
The third prototype,
F-BUAD (c/n 003), was the
first Airbus aircraft to be
tested with fly-by-wire
controls. It was later used
by Novespace to conduct
experiments in zero
gravity and was preserved
at Cologne/Bonn in 2014
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
BOB ROBINSON
commercial aviation world beyond
recognition. Short-range routes were
the preserve of single-aisle airliners at
the time – particularly the McDonnell
Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 727. On
longer routes, types with three or
four engines, such as the DC-10, the
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and the 747,
were replacing ageing 707 and DC-8
workhorses. However, there was an
obvious gap in the market for a new,
AVIATIONANCESTRY.CO.UK
medium-range airliner and several
European manufacturers were looking
at projects in this sector.
The aerospace industry had long
been dominated by the US. European
manufacturers, such as British Aircraft
Corporation (BAC) and Hawker
Siddeley in the UK and Bréguet and
Sud Aviation in France, had a limited
presence in the market, but with the
formation of Airbus, in December
1970, things were about to change.
Half a century on, the pan-European
company is now positioned as the
bigger part of the world’s airliner
manufacturing duopoly.
In the late 1960s, the governments
of France, Germany and the UK
were convinced that European
manufacturers needed to collaborate
if they were to afford to develop a
viable long-term commercial aviation
www.key.aero
97
AVIATIONANCESTRY.CO.UK
Laker Airways operated
a trio of A300B4s
between January
1981 and February 1983
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
98
strategy that could compete with what
the US had to offer. Indeed, BAC and
Sud Aviation were already working
together on the Concorde supersonic
airliner project, so widening the
partnership seemed a logical step.
But on a political level, the formation
of a pan-European aerospace
organisation was bound to have
its problems. In fact, before Airbus
was even established, governments
were regularly changing their
strategy, some even abandoning
the collaboration only to return to it
later. The French government walked
away from it, preferring to work
independently with Dassault on the
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Mercure project... but came back to
the table just three days later, having
reversed its decision. The UK pulled
out altogether, before returning once
Airbus had been established.
It was the Germans who took
the lead. They wanted to re-enter
mainstream commercial aircraft
production and formed an Airbus
Study Group in 1964, comprising
local companies Dornier, Hamburger
Flugzeugbau (HFB), Messerschmitt
Siebelwerke and Vereinigte
Flugtechnische Werke (VFW).
However, it was not until six years
later, in December 1970, that Airbus
Industrie was finally formed, and
incorporated several changes in its
constituent parts.
In France, Sud Aviation and
Nord Aviation had merged to form
Aérospatiale, while Dornier had
withdrawn from Deutsche Airbus,
leaving the remaining companies as:
MBB (Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm
– an amalgamation of Messerschmitt,
Siebel and HFB) and VFW, which had
also linked up with Fokker.
VFW-Fokker eventually elected not
to be a member of Airbus, simply
becoming a supplier to the company,
but Spanish manufacturer CASA did
join the group, taking a 4.2% share;
the value of the horizontal tailplane
The making of a dynasty
France, Germany and Great Britain agree to work together to create a commercial airliner
Germany and France sign A300 launch agreement
A300 prototype rolled out
A300 first flight
1st delivery (an Airbus A300B2 to Air France)
A310 first flight
1st A310 delivery (Swissair)
A320 first flight
1st A320 delivery (Air France)
A340 first flight
A330 first flight
1st A340 delivery (Lufthansa)
A321 first flight
1,000th delivery (an A340-300 to Air France)
1st A330 delivery (Air Inter)
1st A321 delivery (Lufthansa)
1st dedicated freighter delivered (an A300-600F to FedEx)
BelugaST first flight
A319 first flight
1st BelugaST enters service
1st A319 delivery (Swissair)
2,000th delivery (an A340-300 to Lufthansa)
1,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320 to United Airlines)
A318 first flight
3,000th delivery (an A320 to JetBlue Airways)
1st A318 delivery (Frontier Airlines)
2,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A319 to Air China)
A380 first flight
4,000th delivery (an A330-300 to Lufthansa)
3,000th Airbus A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320 to AirAsia)
1st A380 delivery (Singapore Airlines)
500th A330 delivery (an A330-200 to Hainan Airlines)
Dec 2007
Aug 2009
Jan 2010
Aug 2010
Dec 2011
Jan 2012
Jun 14, 2013
Jul 2013
Aug 2013
Mar 2014
Dec 2014
Mar 2015
Jan 2016
Apr 2016
Jun 2016
Oct 2016
April 2017
Oct 19, 2017
Feb 2018
Feb 2018
Mar 2018
Jul 19, 2018
Nov 2018
Nov 2018
May 2019
Sept 2019
Oct 2019
Dec 2019
Jan 9, 2020
Sep 2020
Oct 2020
Nov 2020?
5,000th delivery (an A330-200 to Qantas)
4,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A319 to TAM)
6,000th delivery (an A380 to Emirates)
1st A330-200F delivery (Etihad Airways)
7,000th delivery (an A321 to US Airways)
5,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320 to Middle East Airlines)
A350 first flight
1,000th A330 delivery (an A330-300 to Cathay Pacific)
8,000th delivery (an A320 to AirAsia)
6,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320 to Air Arabia)
1st A350 delivery (Qatar Airways)
9,000th delivery (an A321 to VietJet Air)
1st A320neo delivery (Lufthansa)
7,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320 to Volaris)
1st A220 delivery (Swiss)
10,000th delivery (an A350-900 to Singapore Airlines)
1st A321neo delivery (Virgin America)
A330neo first flight
1st A350-1000 (Qatar Airways)
8,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320neo to Air China)
11,000th delivery (an A320 to Frontier Airlines)
BelugaXL first flight
1st A321LR delivery (Arkia)
1st A330neo delivery (TAP Air Portugal)
12,000th delivery (an A220-100 to Delta Air Lines)
9,000th A320 Family aircraft delivery (an A320neo to easyJet)
1,000th A320neo Family aircraft delivery (an A321neo to IndiGo)
100th A220 delivery (an A220-300 to airBaltic)
BelugaXL enters service
1,500th A330 delivery (an A330-900 to Delta Air Lines)
1st Airbus narrowbody P2F aircraft delivered (an A321P2F to Qantas)
13,000th delivery (as yet undisclosed aircraft type and operator)
RIGHT • The majestic Concorde
and the A300 face off at their
Toulouse / Blagnac birthplace
KEY COLLECTION
AVIATIONANCESTRY.CO.UK
Jul 1967
May 29, 1969
Sep 28,1972
Oct 28, 1972
May 1974
Apr 3, 1982
Mar 1983
Feb 22, 1987
Apr 1988
Oct 25, 1991
Nov 2, 1992
Feb 1993
Mar 11, 1993
Mar 1993
Jan 1994
Jan 1994
Apr 1994
Sep 13, 1994
Aug 25, 1995
Jan 1996
Apr 1996
May 1999
Dec 2001
Jan 15, 2002
Jul 2002
Jul 2003
Jul 2003
Apr 27, 2005
Sep 2005
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Nov 2007
it was to produce. In the UK, an
amalgamation of Hawker Siddeley,
BAC and Scottish Aviation resulted in
the formation of British Aerospace.
At that time, shareholding in Airbus
Industrie consisted of Aérospatiale
(47.9%), Deutsche Airbus (47.9%) and
CASA (4.2%). The UK re-joined in 1979
and took a 20% share, split equally
from Aérospatiale and Deutsche
Airbus – the latter eventually
evolving via Deutsche Aerospace,
through Daimler-Benz Aerospace, to
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Airbus.
Airbus’ concept of a medium-range
airliner capable of seating around
250 passengers was not a new one
and work on the A300 pre-dates the
formation of the company. During
the mid-1960s, several European
manufacturers were tentatively
working on new aircraft projects.
Hawker Siddeley was looking at
the 160-seat HS132 and 204-seat
HS134, while BAC was studying the
Two-Eleven and Three-Eleven as
developments to its short-haul airliner,
the One-Eleven. In France, Bréguet
was proposing the double-deck,
four-engined Br124; Nord Aviation the
high-wing, 12-abreast N600, which
had two cabins separated by a central
bulkhead, and Sud Aviation the Galion
– planned to be constructed as both a
conventional single-deck, 200-seater
and potentially a two-deck, 250-seater.
While collaborative issues over the
organisation of the Airbus consortium
dominated discussions between the
manufacturers, the new European
aircraft was quietly taking shape in the
background. Initially dubbed the HBN
100, the original airliner was loosely
based on concepts already under
www.key.aero
99
AVIATIONANCESTRY.CO.UK
capacity model, a scaled-down
A300 was announced in December
1968, with seating for around 250
passengers. Although no firm orders
had been secured, airlines had
expressed strong interest in the A300.
This resulted in the formal go-ahead to
move the project into the construction
stage being announced in October
1970, two months before the Airbus
consortium was legally founded.
Making dreams a reality
Finnair took on two A300s
when they merged with
fellow Finnish carrier,
Kar-Air in 1990. The duo
were later sold to Air
Scandic in 1998 and later
joined the Iran Air fleet
KEY COLLECTION
evaluation around the continent.
During 1967, a memorandum of
understanding was signed between
France, Germany and the UK to
further develop the project, but a
lukewarm response from airlines
ultimately led to the formal project
100
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
launch being repeatedly delayed.
The problems related to the size of
the aircraft. The proposed 300-seater
– hence the selection of the name
A300 in late 1967 – although favoured
by the French and supported by
local airlines Air France and Air
Inter, had not been warmly received
by others. Eventually, in the face of
overwhelming pressure for a smaller
During the development process,
designers had flirted with a range of
wider fuselage widths, but by the time
construction work had begun on the
first production version, designated
the A300B1, a cross-section of 18ft
6in had been selected. This became
the standard fuselage dimension
for subsequent Airbus widebody
programmes – the A330 and A340.
The A300B1 was 167ft 2in in length
and had a cruising speed of Mach
0.84; with a load of 250 passengers, its
typical range was 1,200nm.
The aircraft was to be powered by
new engines from General Electric,
Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce in
the 50,000lb (222kN) thrust range.
During the development stages, the
Rolls-Royce RB207, which evolved
into the RB211, was the preferred
engine, but eventually the General
Electric CF6-50A was chosen as the
launch powerplant, thanks to Britain’s
wavering commitment to the project.
The assembly of the A300 certainly
presented new challenges for the
European manufacturers. Although
international partners had collaborated
on projects before – perhaps the
most famous being the supersonic
AVIATIONANCESTRY.CO.UK
Concorde – it had not been done on
such a large scale. Airbus adopted
an entirely different approach, with
component parts, such as the wing
assemblies, taken to the production
plant at Toulouse ‘ready to fly’.
All the equipment, cabling and pipes
that would normally have been
fitted in final assembly were already
in place, so only 4% of man-hours
were spent on the final assembly line.
One of the main problems of the
workshare was how to get all the
constituent parts to Airbus’ chosen
assembly location at Toulouse
in southwest France. The wing
assemblies were produced at
the British Aerospace (now BAE
Systems) plant near Chester in the
UK. These had to be transported
to Bremen, Germany to be fitted
with moving surfaces, such as flaps
and slats, by VFW-Fokker. They
were then shipped by barge ten
TOP LEFT • Japan Air System
received the last passenger
configured A300 in
November 2002. The carrier
– now part of Japan Airlines
(JAL) – operated 39 A300s
between 1988 and 2004
SIMON GREGORY/
AVIATION IMAGE NETWORK
ABOVE LEFT • Eastern Air
Lines received an initial four
A300s from Airbus on a
six-month trial. Aside
from cabin fitting, the
aircraft were provided to
the Miami, Florida-based
carrier free of charge
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
BOB ROBINSON
miles downriver to Lemwerder to be
flown to Toulouse, along with the rear
fuselage sections built by MBB. The
central wingbox and nose section
were constructed at St-Nazaire and
Nantes in France and were transported
by road to begin with. Tail assemblies
came from the CASA plant in Spain
and the engines from the US.
To overcome these transportation
issues, two Aero Spacelines Super
Guppy aircraft – a conversion of the
military Boeing C-97J – were acquired
to carry all the sub-assemblies to
its Toulouse facility in the south of
France. Two more were later built
under licence to increase capacity and
keep Toulouse suburb Blagnac busy.
First customers
Korean Air Lines (later
Korean Air) operated
40 examples of the
A300, one of which has
been preserved at its
Jeongseok training facility
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
Although several of Europe’s flag
carriers had confirmed a tentative
interest in the A300, no orders had
been placed before the first prototype
was assembled. In the development
stages the Airbus partners had
stated that the project would not be
launched unless orders for at least 75
units had been received. These never
materialised, but still it was decided to
proceed with the construction of the
first aircraft – a major risk.
But it was not long before airlines
began to commit to the project. The
long-awaited launch order was finally
signed on November 9, 1971 when Air
France agreed to acquire six A300s
– it subsequently announced orders
for a further 17. Iberia followed,
agreeing a contract for four A300s in
January 1972, while Lufthansa, which
had been campaigning for a smaller
type, settled on an order for three
www.key.aero
101
102
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
AVIATIONANCESTRY.CO.UK
A300s plus four options in May 1973.
The first A300B1, F-WUAB (c/n
001), was rolled out at Toulouse in
August 1972. Ground tests were
then completed ahead of the public
unveiling on September 28, 1972. The
maiden flight was four weeks later. At
the controls were Aérospatiale’s senior
test pilot Max Fischl, and the head of
flight test Bernard Ziegler, with two
flight engineers and a flight observer.
By the end of the following month, 11
sorties had already been undertaken.
A second prototype airframe,
F-WUAC (c/n 002), joined the
certification programme in February
1973, while a third aircraft, F-WUAD
(c/n 003), joined in June of the same
year. The latter was a B2, its fuselage
had been stretched by 8ft 8in to
create room for 24 more seats, thus
increasing capacity to between 281
and 345 passengers, depending on
the configuration. This went on to
become the initial production version.
Disappointed with sales
performance, Airbus undertook a
world tour in a bid to attract more
customers – particularly in North
America – and in September 1973
the prototype flew to South America
to participate in the São Paulo Air
Show in Brazil. This was followed
by demonstration flights across the
Americas at various venues, including
Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Port of Spain,
Kingston, Caracas, Mexico City,
Chicago, Cincinnati,
Miami, St Louis,
Boston, New York,
Washington and also
Montréal in Canada.
The tour certainly
highlighted the reliability
of the new aircraft, with
little emerging in the way of
engineering problems
– an engine was changed in
Air France was the first
airline to commit to
purchasing the A300. The
flag carrier is also the only
airline to have operated
examples of every Airbusmanufactured airliner
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
ATI COLLECTION
Chicago, but only because of foreign
object damage. However, the effort
failed in generating further orders.
With the fourth prototype, another
B2, F-WUAA (c/n 004), joining the
certification programme in November
1973, Airbus embarked on more trials
and sales tours. The first example
had completed a tour of India in
September, before flying to Southern
Africa for ‘hot and high’ trials.
Meanwhile, the second had travelled to
Helsinki and Rovaniemi in Finland for
cold weather trials.
After almost 1,600 hours of flight
testing, type certification was awarded
to the A300 by the French and German
authorities during the first quarter of
1974, allowing its European customers
to launch operations. US Federal
Aviation Administration approval
followed in May.
The oil crisis in the early 1970s
further hindered sales prospects,
with only three airlines – Air France,
Lufthansa and Iberia – placing firm
orders by the time of type certification.
Sterling Airways of Denmark, SATA
of Switzerland and TransBrasil had all
signed letters of intent for a total of six
aircraft, but they did not subsequently
order, or ever operate, an A300.
The first production model, F-BVGA
(c/n 005), was delivered to Air France
on May 10, 1974 and entered service
on the carrier’s regular Paris-London
route on May 23. By the end of that
year, Belgium’s Trans European
Airways, which had leased the second
prototype, and Air Siam, which had
ordered two aircraft, but only took
delivery of one, had also introduced
the A300 into their fleets. However,
despite the successful, trouble-free
certification and entry into service,
orders were still slow to materialise.
Garuda Indonesia flew
22 A300s including
three leased examples
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
THE SAMBA COLLECTION
Luton-based Monarch
Airlines was the last
European carrier to
retire its A300s from
passenger service,
doing so in January 2014
MARTIN NEEDHAM
Order breakthrough
During 1975, Air Inter, Indian Airlines,
Korean Air Lines and South African
Airways (SAA) joined the programme
and agreed to acquire 13 aircraft
between them. In 1976, just a single
additional commitment was added
to the order book. Finally, there was
a breakthrough into the US market.
Although Los Angeles-based Western
Airlines had been courted for several
years, Eastern Air Lines became the
launch customer across the Atlantic
when it accepted the first of an initial
four aircraft in 1977. However, these
were not supplied in response to a firm
order, but ‘loaned’ to the airline at no
cost – apart from interior fittings – for
a six-month trial. Eastern was suitably
impressed and agreed a firm order for
23 A300s, plus nine options in June
1978. Another eight airlines had also
placed orders for 20 jets during 1977
and demand steadily began to increase
The type remains in
passenger service with five
Iranian carriers – Iran Air,
Iran Airtour, Mahan Air,
Meraj Air and Qeshm Airlines
MARTIN NEEDHAM
– by the end of 1978, the order book
had grown to 126 aircraft.
By the end of the 1970s, the
increased-range B4 version, which
had been created to widen the model’s
market appeal, had become the
standard production variant. It was
identical in dimensions to the earlier
B2, but had an additional centre wing
tank, boosting the range to more
than 2,000nm.
It had become obvious that the
A300 could be developed into a
family of aircraft, with varied seating
configurations and ranges.
Three versions – the A300 B9, B10
and B11 – were discussed at great
length with customers. The B9 would
involve extending the fuselage to offer
seating for up to 330 passengers, with
a range of up to 1,800nm. In contrast,
the B10, intended to carry around
200 passengers, was put forward as a
response to earlier airline demands
www.key.aero
103
for a smaller version. The B11 was to
be a longer-range model that would
be powered by four unspecified
engines. Although none of these
projects took to the skies as A300s,
they later became commercial
programmes under the respective
banners of A330, A310 and A340.
However, the A300 Family was still
extended: a convertible freighter
version – the B4FC – was fitted with
a 141x101-inch cargo door, enabling
it to accommodate standard pallets
and containers on both the main
deck and in its hold. A freighter
version was also being worked on
at this time.
In December 1980, a new
upgraded version was announced
that would, it was hoped, be more
competitive with Boeing’s 767.
An evolution
RIGHT • Within 30 years
of the A300's first flight,
Airbus' airliner offering had
expanded massively and
incorporated the A310, A330
and A340 – all derived from
its maiden product AIRBUS
The 561st and final
A300, N692FE (c/n 878),
was delivered to
Federal Express (FedEx)
in July 2007 AIRBUS
104
The A300-600 had many new
design features, including an
all-glass, two-crew cockpit
with digital avionics and flight
management systems. Externally,
the redesigned wing included
a new inner wing section and
modifications had been made to
the flaps, slats, spoilers and wingtip
fences. The use of composite
materials reduced the weight by an
astounding 1.6 tons.
The model was also powered
by new engine technology and,
according to Airbus, long-range
versions could carry 40% more
payload – and almost three times
as far as the original A300 – while
burning less fuel.
The launch customer was Saudi
Arabian national carrier Saudia,
which had placed an order for 11
aircraft. The first model, a Pratt &
Whitney-powered example, flew
on July 8, 1983 and, following
certification, was delivered to
Saudia on March 25, 1984.
The General Electric-powered
A300-600s followed in 1985, the
first being destined for Thai
Airways International.
AIRLINER WORLD JANUARY 2021
Like the earlier B4 versions, a
convertible freighter was the next
variant to evolve, and the first one
joined Kuwait Airways in May 1984.
A longer-range A300-600R was
developed for American Airlines,
while a full freighter configuration
followed as the A300-600 became the
definitive version.
A dramatic increase in freight traffic
resulted in a glut of orders for that
dedicated version. In the USA, Federal
Express (FedEx) was the first large
cargo carrier to see the potential of
the aircraft, ordering 25 in 1991. The
first A300-600F flew in December
1993, with deliveries starting in 1994.
FedEx subsequently added new
orders, bringing its total to 42 aircraft,
although it now has a 66-strong fleet,
having purchased several examples
second-hand. The growing number
of orders for the A300 was putting
pressure on the ageing Super Guppy
fleet and Airbus needed to find a new
solution to its assembly issues and in
August 1991 the go-ahead was given
to develop one of the most unusual
aeroplanes ever produced: Airbus
partners Aérospatiale and Deutsche
Airbus formed the Special Aircraft
The Airbus partners initially
agreed that the project
would not be launched until
it had received 75 orders.
The A300 didn't secure 75
commitments until well after
the type's maiden flight
KEY COLLECTION
Transport International Company
to produce five A300-600ST super
transporters; an eye-catching version
of the original model – the Beluga.
It shares around 80% structural
commonality with the A300-600R,
but looks different, thanks to a new
upper fuselage (joined to the lower
section at wing level) and a flight deck
that has been repositioned below the
main deck door. With a cross-section
of 24ft 3½in and space for up to
50,000cu ft of cargo, the
Beluga at the time
offered the
largest
cross-section and volume of any
commercial freighter.
Assembly began in 1993, with
its maiden flight taking place on
September 13, 1994. Certification
was approved a year later and the
airframe was redelivered to Airbus
soon after. It entered service in
January 1996 and has been followed
by four more examples. Demand for
the A300 slowed during the second
half of the 1990s, as the commercial
aviation marketplace changed, and
more modern types offered greater
efficiency. The last passenger example
was handed over to Japan Air System
in November 2002, but freighters
continued to be produced. The 561st
and final A300 was handed over to
FedEx in July 2007. The jet’s 36-year
production run exceeded expectations
and established a dynasty of widebody
airliners, with Airbus leveraging
the A300’s 18ft 6in wide fuselage to
produce the the A310, A330, A340 and
most recently the A330neo. In October
1968, an early Airbus ad said the A300
was “the start of something big”.
Fast-forward 52 years and 13,000
deliveries, the aerospace giant now
holds a market share of around 62%
and an order backlog of 7,377 aircraft.
It wasn’t the start of something big, it
was the creation of a colossus.
As the A300 was designed
to be compatible with
LD3 cargo containers, it
has remained popular
with freight operators
including DHL, United
Parcel Service and FedEx
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
MONI SHAFIR
www.key.aero
105
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