Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) is considering buying 10 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, the carrier has announced. The carrier operates a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing types; at present, its single-aisle equipment largely consists of Airbus A320-family aircraft, with a small fleet of 20 year-plus Boeing 757s and some Embraer EMB 170/190s for regional work. An AZAL delegation, headed by president Jahangir Asgarov, raised the prospect of a 737 purchase at last week’s Farnborough Airshow during a meeting with Boeing VP-sales, Middle East, Russia & Central Asia Marty Bentrott. If an order goes ahead, AZAL is looking for the aircraft to be delivered in the 2018-20 timeframe. It is also in talks with Boeing about the method of financing such a purchase. <br/>
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Turkey's Pegasus Airlines will take delivery of its first A320neo as planned this week, Airbus said, reversing earlier indications that the delivery would be postponed following Friday's thwarted coup attempt in the country. The aircraft will be handed over in Hamburg Tuesday, but without a previously planned media ceremony. Airbus said Saturday that the ceremony had been postponed, pending a "better moment" for the plane's delivery. The delivery is an important milestone for Airbus as well as the airline, because it involves the first aircraft to be powered by the latest generation of engines developed by CFM International. Earlier deliveries of A320neos powered by Pratt & Whitney engines had been delayed due to technical snags. <br/>
JetBlue Airways witnessed an improvement in air traffic in the month of June. Traffic – measured in RPMs – was 3.95b, up 11.6% from 3.54b recorded a year ago. On a year-over-year basis, available seat miles soared to 10.5% to 4.58b. Load factor increased to 86.2% while it was 85.3% in Jun 2015. The increase in the metric was due to traffic growth outpacing capacity expansion. JetBlue’s preliminary RASM in the month dropped roughly 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Moreover, for the first 6 months of 2016, JetBlue generated RPMs of 22.52b (up 12.1% year over year) and ASMs of 26.62b (up 12.6%). However, the load factor declined 30 basis points to 84.9%. JetBlue recently declared that it would cover TSA Pre enrolment cost for its most frequent fliers or the Mosaic TrueBlue members. <br/>