Virgin Atlantic has applied special large
lettering to Airbus A340-642 G-VNAP
which has been in storage for more than
two-and-a-half years. It has been returned
to service to enable the airline to meet
capacity demands while some of its Boeing
787-9 Dreamliner eet is grounded due
to ongoing issues with their Rolls-Royce
Trent 1000 engines. The A340 has been
renamed Sleeping Beauty Rejuvenated,
with the additional titles on the fuselage
thanking the airline’s global workforce
for their efforts. It is also one of only two
aircraft to feature an upright version of the
airline’s famous ‘Flying Lady’ logo – the rst
being Dreamliner G-VNEW Birthday Girl.
The carrier’s CEO Craig Kreeger
said: “The people of Virgin Atlantic andVirgin Holidays have made our business
and our brand what it is today. They’re
both our magic ingredient and our
greatest strength. We wanted to take the
opportunity to do something special with
this aircraft to recognise all the hard work
that goes on, day in and day out, across
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays, so the
‘big Virgin Atlantic thank you’ message
is for every one of our 9,000 people.
Paired with the special edition of our
iconic Flying Lady, we hope we’ve created
something our people can feel proud of,
which is also eye-catching and fun for
our customers.”IN BRIEF
Lufthansa’s low-cost offshoot EUROWINGS
has con rmed plans that it intends to
introduce a new service to Cornwall
Airport Newquay from Berlin/Tegel airport
in Germany. The new weekly connection,
which will launch on May 5, is in addition to
previously announced ights from Stuttgart
and Düsseldorf.
AIR ICELAND CONNECT is to drop its
services to the UK as part of a downsizing
programme that also includes disposing of
its Bombardier Dash 8s. The regional carrier,
part of the Icelandair Group, will terminate its
currently twice-weekly connections to Belfast
and Aberdeen in May, along with the domestic
link from Ke avík to Akureyri and one of its
three routes to Greenland.
Bell Helicopters announced on February 22
that it has rebranded and will now be known
simply as BELL. The US company says the
new name strategy and modernised logo are
“rooted in the company’s focus on innovation
and customer experience”. Bell will roll out
the rebrand over the next year.US-based NORTHERN AIR CARGO has
taken on its rst Boeing 767-323ERBDSF,
N379CX. The jet, leased from Air Transport
International, entered service on February 5.
Cary Liao
The Swiss company Marenco Swisshelicopter
has changed its name to KOPTER GROUP
and its mid-light all-composite helicopter,
now under development, will be known as
the Kopter SKYe SH09. The prototype of
the latter rst ew on October 2, 2014, and
the second unit followed suit in 2016. One
additional prototype is due to join the ight
test programme and will be followed shortly
after by a pre-production aircraft to be used
for EASA and FAA certi cation approval.
Launch customer is Norwegian company
Tronrud Engineering — certi cation and rst
deliveries are planned for 2019. Rod SimpsonThe French-based air taxi company, WIJET,
has ordered 16 HA-420 light jets from
HondaJet with rst deliveries due to take
place during the rst quarter of 2018. They
will replace the company’s existing eet of
15 Cessna Citation Mustangs, most of which
were obtained through Wijet’s acquisition of
the British operator, Blink. Rod SimpsonCIVIL NEWS
14 Aviation News incorporating Jets April 2018Israel’s El Al has announced that in October
it will shut down UP, the low-cost airline
it has been operating since 2014 to ve
destinations in Europe (Kiev, Budapest,
Prague, Berlin and Larnaca). The decision
is said to have been the result of high
operating costs, as well as the future merger
with Israir, which ies to similar European
destinations. After the shutdown, El Al will
take over the routes and will re-commission
the business class sections to meet a
growing demand over the last two years.
Noam MenasheAircraft carrying the UP branding will be a thing of the past after October as El Al has decided
to close down the low-cost airline. Noam MenasheEl Al to Shut Down its UP Brand
Virgin’s thank you to its workforce painted on
the side of Airbus A340-642 G-VNAP. Simon
Gregory/Aviation Image NetworkVirgin’s Big Thank You
Primera Expands
Transatlantic Routes
Low-cost airline Primera Air has said it
will begin direct ights ve times a week
from London Stansted to Washington
Dulles Airport, with ights commencing
on August 22. Primera Air will also
increase ight frequency between
Stansted and Toronto.
“We’ve been planning to add
Washington from the beginning of the
transatlantic ight project. We see a
strong demand for this route and we
are the rst low-cost airline to start
operations between both cities,” saidAndri Már Ingólfsson, President and
owner of the airline.
The company is opening new bases in
Birmingham, Stansted and Paris Charles
de Gaulle for ights to New York, Boston
and Toronto this April along with new
routes from the UK to Malaga, Palma
de Mallorca, Alicante, Barcelona and
Chania. In the next two years, Primera
Air plans to increase its presence at
current bases and add new transatlantic
routes and airports, as the airline has 20
Boeing 737 MAX 9s on order.10-12_14_civil_newsDC.mf.indd 14 02/03/2018 18: