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Scramble 459
Dassault
Falcon 5X
The Falcon 5X made its first flight from Dassault’s Bordeaux-
Mérignac final assembly facility on 5 July 2017, using a “pre-
liminary version” of the Safran Silvercrest engines, as design
issues have delayed their development. According to Das-
sault, the preliminary flight-test campaign will last only a
few weeks to help streamline the development process. A
full-fledged flight-test campaign with the requested Safran
engines is scheduled to begin in 2018. Senior test pilots
Philippe Deleume and Philippe Rebourg were at the controls
of the two-hour test flight. The preliminary flight tests will
permit Dassault to collect required airframe and systems data
that could not be generated during ground tests undertaken
earlier this spring. “We’re committed to limiting the conse-
quences of the four-year engine development delay as much
as possible and the short preliminary flight-test campaign
is part of this effort,” stated by Dassault Aviation chairman
and CEO Eric Trappier. “We will closely monitor the valida-
tion tests on the modified Silvercrest, which are scheduled
by Safran in the few coming months, as their results will be
critical for meeting the 5X entry into service in 2020.”
Gulfstream
G600
Gulfstream Aerospace’s fourth flight-test G600, N740GD,
completed its maiden flight on 21 June 2017, just six weeks
after the third aircraft joined the flight-test fleet. Within
six months four G600 prototypes made their first flight and
together the formation already gathered 570 hours of flying
time. Meanwhile, the fifth G600 test aircraft was recently
delivered to the Savannah Completions centre, where it
will be outfitted with a production interior. It will be used
to validate interior elements. According to Gulfstream, the
G600 is “on schedule” for FAA certification next year, with
customer deliveries slated for later that year. Its G500 sibling
is expected to receive FAA certification and enter service by
the end of this year.
Europe
The Netherlands
The former owners of bankrupt Denim Air have created a new
ACMI-carrier, called Air Hollandia. The new airline has taken
delivery of their first aircraft, a Fokker 100 in July. Later the
company also wants to add several B737s to its fleet.
France
The various unions have agreed on the start of Joon, the low-
cost medium and long haul airline of Air France-KLM. With
this agreement the airline can now really start. As earlier
announced Joon will start operations later this year using six
A321s, growing to eight by summer next year. As of next year
the airline will expand with A340s and A350s. In 2021 Joon
expects to operate six A320s, twelve A321s and ten A350s.
Germany
Air Lease Corporation and Air Berlin signed a lease agreement
for two A330-900neos. No timeframe has been announced
about when the planes should be delivered.
Ireland
The CEO of CityJet said in an interview with FlightGlobal that
the company is working on the take-over of two additional
European airlines to expand its business. In recent years the
company acquired Blue1 and Cimber.
Italy
Fly Marche is a new airline in Italy, which is planning to
operate a wet-leased Let 410 on flights from Perugia to
Ancona, Rimini, Elba, Olbia and Mali Losinj and Zadar. The
last two destinations are in Croatia. Flights should have
started by the time you read this Scramble.
Due to the diplomatic crisis in Qatar, the deal between Qatar
Airways and Meridiana has become uncertain. The Qatari
airline had agreed to pay up for a stake of 49% in the Italian
airline by 30 June, but failed to meet this deadline. It is now
unknown when the deal comes through.
Malta
A new airline in the works in Malta is FlyVolare. This new
airline is planning to fly out of Italy, Perugia to be precise. The
Airliner News
A Spanish registered TUI aircraft? Does that mean that after Germany, the UK, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, there will be a new
European TUI subsidiary TUI flySpain? Well none of this all, EC-JBL is just a former Air Europa 737-800 aircraft which was delivered to TUI fly
Belgium as OO-TUP on 7 July 2017. It is seen here at Palma de Mallorca prior to its delivery to Brussels, already painted in full TUI colours but
still with its Spanish registration EC-JBL. (18 June 2017, Ton Jochems)
