At the Dubai Airshow, leisure carrier SunExpress has exercised its options to order 10 additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft as part of its fleet renewal and growth strategy. The order is valued at US$1.2b at list prices and follows a previous order for 32 of the airplanes. “We have a long standing, strong and trustful relationship with Boeing and thus we decided to turn our option into an order. We stand behind our strategic decision to phase the 737 MAX into our fleet for all of its economic and ecological advantages, mid- and long-term,” says Jens Bischof, CE of SunExpress. “We have full confidence that Boeing will deliver us a safe, reliable, and efficient aircraft.” The airline currently operates up to 1,800 flights a week on a fleet of 84 aircraft, including the Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A330. <br/>
unaligned
Replacing all Pratt & Whitney engines on IndiGo's fleet of almost 100 Airbus planes by Jan 31, as ordered by India's aviation watchdog, will be challenging but the airline aims to complete the work, its CE said Monday. India's aviation regulator Nov 1 ordered IndiGo to replace all Pratt & Whitney engines on its fleet of twin-engined Airbus A320neo family aircraft with new P&W power units, following recent inflight engine shutdowns that caused "serious concern". "It's a challenge. But we have every intention of meeting it. Pratt is helping us and we are trying to make that work as fast as we can," Ronojoy Dutta, IndiGo CE, said. IndiGo is Airbus' biggest client for A320neo planes, and while the P&W engines are fuel efficient there have been issues since they entered service in 2016. <br/>
Emirates Airline signed a firm order for 50 Airbus A350s at the Dubai Airshow in the first of several steps to transform its aircraft commitments and fleet plans. The order supersedes an MOU signed earlier this year that saw it taking 40 A330neos and just 30 A350s. The preliminary deal came on the heels of Airbus’ decision to terminate the A380 program. Emirates had firm commitments for 162 A380s, 112 of which had been delivered by the end of October. According to Emirates Airline and group chairman and CE Sheikh Ahmad Bin Sayeed Al Maktoum, the carrier will take delivery of a total of 123 A380s. That means Airbus was willing to swap an order for 49 A380s into an order for 50 A350s, given its determination to shut down the program by 2021. <br/>
Hahn Air announced Monday it has issued the first airline tickets enabled by blockchain technology, in partnership with Winding Tree, an open-source travel distribution platform. Blockchain, which first emerged as the system powering bitcoin, is a shared database maintained by a network of computers. Hahn Air flew passengers holding blockchain-powered tickets Monday on its scheduled flight from Dusseldorf to Luxembourg. "For us, it is important to look into the future to understand how can we make distribution faster," Jörg Troester, Hahn Air's head of corporate strategy and govt & industry affairs, said. He added that after the flight, the airline will analyse the details of how things worked for the first blockchain ticket and look into ways on how to commercialise it. <br/>
Flynas is in talks to exercise purchasing options, for some or all of 40 Airbus A320neo narrowbody jets, its CE said Monday. The carrier ordered 80 A320neo family jets in 2017, with purchasing options for an additional 40 aircraft. In June, it signed a preliminary agreement to swap some of those for larger A321 versions. "We are thinking to confirm part of the options but still we are in negotiations with Airbus," CE Bander Abdulrahman al-Mohanna said. The airline plans to make an announcement with Airbus Tuesday to "confirm a couple of things," he said, declining to comment further. As part the June agreement, flynas also placed a provisional order for 10 longer-range A321XLR jets. The airline, at this stage, will continue to use engines made by CFM International, in any potential order, Mohanna said. <br/>