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Nigeria
Air Peace, which recently took delivery of its first B777-200ER
is also set to acquire a single, former Emirates, B777-300. The
airline has plans to add two more B777s to its fleet to support
its long haul network plans. By the time you read this Scram-
ble Peace should have started its flights from Lagos to London-
Gatwick. Other new destinations planned are Atlanta (GA),
Houston (TX), Dubai, Mumbai, Johannesburg and Guangzhou.
Asia
Afghanistan
Kam Air has acquired two B737 classics, which it was already
wet-leasing from Ukrainian Wings.
China
Xiamen Airlines has ordered twenty B737 MAX8s and ten
B737 MAX10s. Deliveries will commence in 2019 and should
be completed in 2022.
India
AirAsia India has issued a Request for Proposals for the lease
of forty A320 classics.
IndiGo Airlines has narrowed down its wide body aircraft
selection to the A330neo. A finalization of the order is
expected in June.
Japan
All Nippon Airways has ordered two B777F’s for deliveries in
2019-2020.
All Nippon Airways decided that both its LCC carriers should
merge to better compete with other low-cost carriers. Peach
Aviation will absorb Vanilla Air and the merger should be
completed by early 2020.
Singapore
Boeing and BOC Aviation signed an order for six B787-9s.
The planes will be delivered in 2018 and 2019 and the lessor
already has an, unknown, lease customer for the six.
Tajikistan
Somon Air is currently in talks with Embraer over the pur-
chase of eight ERJ190E2s.
Vietnam
Although Bamboo Airways is still awaiting a business license
from the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport, the airline has
already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus
for 24 A321neos, with options for another 24. If all goes well,
the first aircraft will be delivered from 2022.
Vietstar Airlines, which is currently operating small aircraft
for charter operations, intends to launch commercial flights
later this year with five B737-800s.
Latin America
Chile
LAW - Latin American Wings suspended its operations early
March. A reorganization is taking place, as the airline hopes
to resume operations.
Colombia
Avianca Holdings has converted three outstanding B787-8
orders into B787-9s. Its deliveries are set for 2019.
Middle East
Qatar
During the delivery of its first A350-1000, Qatar Airways’ CEO
said that the airline was interested in the projects from Aerion
and Boom Technology which are working on new supersonic
aircraft. Al Baker said “we are very interested in supersonic
flights. We would not hesitate to be the first operator of the
aircraft”. However, Qatar Airways said that potential nego-
tiations with the companies would only start once the final
configuration of the aircrafts engines are finished.
Saudi Arabia
In March the Saudi Crown Prince visited the US and, accord-
ing to a statement from the government, he was present
when Boeing and SaudiGulf Airlines signed a MOU for sixteen
wide body aircraft. No details of the deal are currently avail-
able, but it was already known that the airline was talking
with Boeing about a possible order for B777s and/or B787s.
At the moment SaudiGulf operates four A320s on domestic
routes as well as to Dubai and soon Islamabad.
North America
United States of America
American Airlines intends to retire 45 of its oldest B737-800s
by the end of 2020. At the same time, the airline is on the
lookout for adding second-hand A319s.
Brussels Airlines will operate six ex Lufthansa Airbus A340-300s for Eurowings. The aircraft are painted in full Eurowings colours but will be
registered in the Belgian register and will be operated by a Brussels Airlines crew. These Belgian/German wide bodies will be based at Dussel-
dorf and will be used for transatlantic services to the US, beginning with New York-JFK (NY) and Los Angeles-LAX (CA). The first two aircraft
had been delivered in March. OO-SCW was the first one and is seen here returning from a flight to Palma de Mallorca. For crew familiarization
the A340s will initially be used on Eurowings services from Dusseldorf to Vienna and Palma de Mallorca. (Dusseldorf, 23 March 2018, Walter
Heukensfeld)
