A Brazilian appeals court ruled Monday in favour of several Avianca Brasil lessors, granting them the right to repossess over 15 planes, legal records show, amid a renewed push to retrieve the Airbus jets from the struggling airline. Avianca Brasil filed for bankruptcy in December after falling behind on airplane lease payments and has managed to hold on to most of its planes amid a dizzying number of court cases. But while Brazilian judges had previously blocked repossession efforts pending a creditors meeting on the fate of Avianca Brasil’s debts, that hurdle has now been cleared. On Friday, Avianca Brasil’s creditors met and approved a series of auctions to sell the carrier’s airport slots. The airline declined to comment. The carrier had previously announced that it would progressively reduce the number of destinations it serves throughout April.<br/>
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United has added the possible long-range Airbus "A321XLR" to its list of replacement options for some of its aging Boeing 757s, as it aims to replace the middle-of-the-market portion of its fleet in the next decade. The carrier estimates a need for 30-40 mid-market aircraft to replace both 757s and Boeing 767s from the mid-2020s, United president Scott Kirby said in a video of a San Francisco town hall held at the end of March that was viewed by FlightGlobal. The balance of its 757 and 767 fleet, which Cirium's Fleets Analyzer shows includes 127 aircraft, can be replaced by Boeing 737 Max 10 and Boeing 787-8 aircraft, he says. Another option is sub-optimising the fleet and replacing all of its 757 and 767s with 737 Max and 787s, adds Kirby. "We feel really good about the bulk of the narrowbody, the bulk of the widebody fleet," says Kirby. "That 30 to 40 airplanes for 757, 767 replacements we don't have a good answer for."<br/>
Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) is in the process of installing seven new full-flight simulators (FFS) at various locations and will expand the company's facilities in Munich and Vienna over the next year. The Munich-headquartered pilot and flight attendant training subsidiary of Lufthansa Group says the effort is worth E89m and represents the largest pilot training investment in LAT's history; its number of FFS will grow to 60 under the programme. In Frankfurt, LAT plans to install two Boeing 777-9 simulators and a combined Airbus Helicopters H135/145 simulator. Lufthansa is scheduled to receive its first 777-9 in 2020. A second Airbus A350 FFS is to be installed at LAT's Munich facility. The site, near Munich airport – which comprises two A320 FFS, one for A330/A340s and one for A350s – will be expanded to accommodate up to eight devices. In addition to the new A350 simulator, an existing Embraer 190 FFS will be transferred from LAT's Frankfurt campus to Munich. The remaining two slots will be available for future growth, LAT says.<br/>