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Scramble 468
Italy
The government has, once again, extended the deadline
for submitting bids for Alitalia. The current deadline was
30 April, but this has now been extended with another six
months. Currently named as possible buyers are Air France-
KLM (with the help of Delta Air Lines), easyJet and Wizz Air.
In the meantime the European Commission has opened an
intensive investigation into the loan the Italian government
has provided to Alitalia to keep the airline from collapsing.
The EC will investigate if this loan is illegal state aid.
Ireland
Boeing and Ryanair announced on 24 April that the airline
has decided to firm up options for 25 B737MAX200s. Ryanair
now has 135 MAX200s on order. The first is due in the first
quarter of 2019.
Malta
Small carrier Maleth-Aero, which currently operates five
B737-300s, one B737-500s, a ERJ145 and several business jets,
is set to take delivery of an A340-600 by August. The plane
will be used for ACMI-operations.
Norway
On 12 April the first ERJ190-E2 of Wideroe arrived at the air-
line’s base at Bodø. The arrival also marked the delivery of
the world’s first ERJ190-E2. The new aircraft can be spotted
on flights between Bergen, Bodø and Tromsø. Later inter-
national operations to Hamburg and Munich will follow.
Wideroe is also thinking about converting some of its twelve
options it has for ERJ190-E2s.
Poland
LOT is going to add six former Azul ERJ195s to its fleet. The
first of those should have arrived when you read this issue of
Scramble. Two extra DHC-8-400Qs are also to join the fleet.
These will be leased via Nordic Aviation Capital for at least six
months. Lastly for fleet news is that the airline also signed a
lease agreement with Avolon for three more B787-9. The first
two of these will be delivered in May 2019 and the last one in
October 2019. The airline is also exploring the possibilities to
establish a subsidiary in Hungary, which would then operate
flights between Budapest and Chicago (IL) and New York-JFK
(NY). LOT hopes to have its new unit operational later this
year.
Portugal
Last month we reported about the order of Hi Fly for ten
A330-900s, this month we can report that the airline has
reconfirmed its plans to operate two A380s on ACMI-opera-
tions. The first of the duo is set to arrive in June.
Russia
Sukhoi is thinking about creating a new variant of the SSJ, the
SSJ100/75, a 75-seat version of the current SSJ100/95. One of
the airlines very interested in this plane is S7 Airlines, which
wants to use the aircraft to replace its sixteen ERJ170s.
After the crash of one of their An-148s, Saratov Airlines has
now decided to rebrand itself. The new name of the company
is Ivolga Airlines. The yellow livery will, however, remain.
The Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant and Polar Airlines signed an
agreement for a total of 200 TVS-2DTS turboprops. Deliveries
of the aircraft will start in 2021 and be completed in 2025. The
TVS-2DTS is an updated variant of the famous An-2 biplane
and is able to carry up to fourteen passengers.
UTair signed a lease agreement with ALC for two B737MAX8s.
Spain
Volotea Airlines will sell 49% of its shares to investment com-
panies Indigo Partners and HRS Management, both from the
US. Indigo Partners is not a stranger to the aviation world
as it has an extensive aviation portfolio with large (control-
ling) stakes in Frontier Airlines (US), JetSmart (Chile), Volaris
(Mexico), Enerjet (Canada) and Wizz Air (Hungary). Indigo
was also the company to sign the largest narrowbody order
ever (in November 2017 for 430 A320neo-family planes).
Switzerland
The demise of Air Berlin also resulted in the end for Belair.
In January Belair was bought by investment company SBC
and the new owner has now applied for re-certification of
the airline. It hopes to be back in business by the end of this
month, with first flights planned in June. At first Belair wants
to wet-lease three A320s, but it is yet unknown where they
are going to source the planes from. It is however known that
all three planes will be registered in Switzerland. At the end
of this year Belair hopes to expand the fleet with another
A320.
United Kingdom
IAG has acquired a 4,61% stake in Norwegian and also said
when announcing this, that the airline will use this share to
open up talks with the airline about the possibility to buy
Norwegian. IAG has taken on JP Morgan to secure funding for
the possible acquisition of Norwegian. Later in April it also
became known that IAG held talks with Air Europa about a
possible buy-out of that airline, but that these talks failed.
Allegiant is busy with the transition from an all MD-80 operator to an all Airbus operator. Besides twelve new Airbus A320 aircraft they have
ordered directly with Airbus, the majority of their fleet is second hand. The all new aircraft can be recognized by their Sharklets. As of late April
2018 Allegiant’s fleet consists of thirty Airbus A319s, 39 Airbus A320s and 32 MD-80s. Two new A320s, and some more used A319s and A320s,
will enter their fleet in the near future to replace the last MD-80s. Allegiant has already scheduled its last MD-80 flight for 25 November 2018.
Airbus A320 N262NV is an ex Saudia aircraft and is seen here at Shannon for some pre-delivery maintenance. (24 March 2018, Adrian Kissane)
