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Scramble 469
the Tunisian carrier. Syphax Airlines went out of business in
2015.
Uganda
The government has ordered four CRJ900s and two A330-200s
for Uganda Airlines. The restart of the country’s national
airline is set to begin in November when the first CRJs are
due to arrive.
Asia
India
Air India will retire its three remaining ‘dual-bogey’ A320s,
by the end of the year. These A320s were inherited from
the merger with Indian Airlines in 2011 and have a double
amount of wheels on the main landing gear. Indian Airlines
ordered these A320s as, at the time, some Indian airports had
lower quality runways and taxiways. These double-bogeys
helped to better distribute the weight from the aircraft onto
the tarmac.
Three years after its announcement, the planned merger
between Jet Airways and JetLite has been blocked by the
Indian government. In other news, Jet Airways has said that
it’s looking to expand its orders for the B737MAX to over 200.
Currently the airline has 150 orders and lease deals for the
MAX-family, but probably needs more planes as it ramps up
domestic operations.
Singapore
Silk Air will be absorbed by Singapore Airlines. The Singa-
pore Airlines group only recently merged subsidiary Tiger
Airways with Scoot, so now Silk Air is next to be merged
within the group, although this merger is expected to take a
number of years.
South Korea
Eastar Jet signed a Letter of Intent for two B737 MAX8s with
expected delivery already from December 2018.
Taiwan
Start-up Starlux Airlines intends to commence operations in
September or October 2019 with the first of its three A321neos.
The airline is very ambitious, as it is already speaking of four-
teen B777-300s or B787-10s for longhaul flights from 2021.
Thailand
Bangkok Airways will soon issue a Request for Proposals for
an order of twenty narrowbody aircraft to Airbus, Boeing and
Bombardier. The airline intends to place an eventual order by
the end of this year with a single manufacturer.
Latin America
Dominican Republic
Due to new ownership, Dominican Wings has been rebranded
as Flycana and will proceed as a low-cost carrier.
Venezuela
It’s not a good time for airlines in the country as SBA Airlines
suspended its operations 28 April and Aserca on 22 May.
Middle East
Iran
During the Eurasian Airshow at Antalya Iran Airtour Airline
and Iran Aseman Airlines signed lease-agreements with
Sukhoi for twenty SSJ100/95s each. The first planes are to
arrive in 2020 and all planes should be delivered two years
later.
Iraq
Fly Erbil, which is trying to start-up since 2016, has booted
up its effort to commence operations. The airline now hopes
to launch with flights as early as next month between Erbil
and Stockholm. Later the airline wants to fly to Amsterdam,
Berlin, Gothenburg and Munich. Fly Erbil wants to operate
four A320s and is busy obtaining its AOC.
Jordan
Royal Jordanian Airlines hopes to finalize an order for up to
twenty-three new narrowbody planes before the end of Sep-
tember. Under consideration are offers from Airbus, Boeing,
Bombardier and Embraer and the airline has already said that
it would be a “winner takes all”-order.
Lebanon
Middle East Airlines is finalizing its plans to order new wide-
bodies to replace their five A330-200s. Under consideration
are the A330-900 and B787-9. Slightly favourite is the A330 as
all crews can easily be used on the type. MEA is also prepar-
MaxAir is a Katsina (Nigeria) based airline which specializes in Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage flights between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia with a
fleet of Boeing 747-400s. Besides these Jumbo’s they also have one Embraer 135 Legacy in their fleet which is used for VIP missions. In Spring
this year MaxAir increased the number of Boeings in their fleet by buying three former Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300s. The first is 5N-DMB
(ex N650SW) and is seen here departing Shannon for Algiers on its delivery to Nigeria. On arrival in Nigeria the aircraft will be baptized as Late
Alhaji Bara’u Jakur. (19 May 2018, Malcom Nason)
