Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris will take 25 more Airbus A321neo twinjets, the airframer announced at the Paris air show today, citing a previously undisclosed purchase agreement signed in October 2022. Volaris now has a backlog of 143 A320neo-family aircraft, Airbus notes. All of them are powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines. “These A321neos will support our long-term business viability and sustainability strategy, while moving us closer to operating an all-neo fleet by 2028,” says Volaris CE Enrique Beltranena. The all-Airbus operator has around 65 320neo-family jets in its fleet today, Cirium fleets data shows, including 19 A321neos. It also has around 50 A320ceo-family jets in service.<br/>
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A Russian pilot has been sentenced to six years in prison after a plane he was flying made a rough crash-landing at a Moscow airport in 2019, killing 41 passengers, the general prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Denis Evdokimov was operating an Aeroflot passenger flight from Moscow to the northern city of Murmansk on May 5, 2019 when lightning struck the plane. He returned to the capital’s Sheremetyevo airport for an emergency landing. Television footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet 100 bouncing along the tarmac before the rear part of the aircraft burst into flames. Forty-one out of 78 people aboard died, including two children. The surviving passengers escaped using the aircraft’s emergency slides. “After the decision was made to return to the airport of departure, (Evdokimov) made, without observing the procedure for operating the aircraft, a very rough landing, allowing the aircraft to ‘bounce’”, the prosecutor’s office said. “As a result, the main landing gear collapsed and the aircraft structure was destroyed with a spill and ignition of the fuel,” the office said. Evdokimov was charged in 2019 with violating traffic safety rules resulting in the negligent death of two or more people. In addition to his prison sentence, Evdokimov is banned from operating aircraft for three years. He pleaded not guilty, Interfax reported. It was not immediately clear if he intended to appeal. The aircraft was owned by VEB-Leasing Joint-Stock Company, the prosecutor’s office said. Experts have warned of safety risks as Russian airlines, including state-controlled Aeroflot, are stripping jetliners to secure parts they can no longer buy due to Western sanctions.<br/>
As the deafening roar of an F35 fighter jet washes over the Paris air show, Tony Douglas allows himself a moment of nostalgia: he was formerly responsible for the UK government agency charged with buying the planes. Now he is in charge of a different aviation proposition, leading the launch of a new commercial airline belonging to the Saudi Arabian state. Riyadh Air, owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund, was first revealed in March alongside a provisional order for up to 72 Boeing 787 aeroplanes. Now its full launch comes as the global aviation industry races to meet resurgent demand for air travel after the end of coronavirus pandemic lockdowns. The carrier is this week showing its new purple livery – on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – to the industry at the Paris air show, after making its debut last week in the Saudi capital, with which it shares its name. It forms part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify its economy away from oil production under Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince who has taken a central role in ruling the country – including allegedly approving the murder of regime critic Jamal Khashoggi, according to US intelligence agencies. That murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 cast a cloud over Prince Mohammed’s reign for several years, but the prince has continued with plans for a new 100-mile-long megacity called Neom and massively increased tourism. Saudi Arabia already owns Saudia, formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines, which has been in operation since 1945 when it was gifted a plane by US president Franklin Roosevelt. However, many of its routes are geared towards passengers travelling to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. Rivals in the Middle East such as Qatar Airways, Dubai’s Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad have built up extensive networks with luxurious facilities for travellers in business and first class. Those fleets of planes are seen as important boosters of the countries’ “soft power”, carrying hundreds of millions of passengers each year through airports that have become hubs for connecting flights.<br/>
Israeli flag-carrier El Al has reached a lease agreement with Irish-based AerCap covering a pair of Boeing 787-9s. The aircraft will be delivered to the airline in the second quarter of 2025 and Q1 of 2026. El Al’s lease follows its disclosure that it was looking to expand its 787 fleet. The airline is already preparing to take the final 787 from its original order batch of 16, and has also agreed to take another 787 originally due for delivery to another customer. But El Al has been setting out further fleet-modernisation plans and is aiming to take five more long-haul aircraft by 2028. The AerCap agreement will take the El Al fleet of 787s to 19. “In order to meet our business goals, set in the strategic plan, we are required to adjust our acquisition plan,” says El Al chief Dina Ben Tal Ganancia. “These aircraft enable us to expand our route network and add more attractive destinations for our customers.”<br/>
Police on Tuesday sought an arrest warrant for a teenager who attempted to open a plane door on a Jeju Air flight the previous day. The 19-year-old, whose identity was withheld, was detained Monday after unsuccessfully trying to force open the emergency door of the Jeju Air flight which was heading to Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, earlier in the day from Cebu, the Philippines, with about 180 passengers on board. The Incheon International Airport Police Corps charged him with breaching the Aviation Security Act. According to police, the suspect began behaving strangely and attempted to open the emergency door at around 5:30 a.m., about an hour after takeoff. He was restrained by flight attendants and passengers before being handed over to the Incheon airport police afterward. The emergency exit did not open due to air pressure difference and the plane's safety system, and no one was hurt in the incident. The suspect had reportedly dropped out of high school and was on his way home after staying in Cebu alone for about a month, police said. During questioning, he did not confess to a clear motive for the crime and asked investigators irrelevant questions, like "how many life vests are there on an airplane?" or "whether all flight attendants would be fired if the emergency door is opened." But police said he has no psychiatric treatment records.<br/>
Philippine Airlines is to fit 10-abreast seating to the economy cabin of its Airbus A350-1000s, taking advantage of recent interior upgrades to the variant. The carrier is configuring the twinjets with 380 seats in three classes, including 24 in the premium-economy cabin and 42 in business. Airbus has introduced a new standard for the -1000 with modifications including a wider interior which enables a 10-abreast layout. CE Stanley Ng says the carrier – which took its first Airbus, an A300B4, more than 40 years ago – is considering other changes to its fleet. He states that the airline is “exploring options” to replace its A330-300s, of which it has 10, “in about three or four years’ time”. The A350s will gradually replace Boeing 777-300ERs as they arrive over the course of 2025-27. Ng says the addition of more A350s “makes sense”, and he is open to the possibility of A350 freighters, although he says the carrier is “quite new” to the concept of operating its own cargo aircraft.<br/>
The AirAsia group of airlines “will definitely” be placing a large order for aircraft over “the next two years”, although it will not be adding to the flurry of order announcements at this year’s Paris air show. Tony Fernandes, CE of AirAsia parent company Capital A, tells FlightGlobal that the group has other priorities at this stage. “I think it’s crazy for me to talk about orders now when I haven’t got all my planes back [in service],” he says. “But this is a business…and you need to plan quite a few years ahead, of course. I would say… over the next two years, we will definitely be placing large orders.” At the 2011 edition of the Paris air show, AirAsia made headlines when it placed an order for 200 A320neos. Then at 2019’s show, it became the largest A321neo customer in the world after converting 253 of its A320neo orders to the larger variant. With existing Airbus narrowbody commitments in place, Fernandes says the group is looking at “potentially acquiring” more widebody aircraft as an immediate priority – pointing to a robust recovery in the medium-haul market. Low-cost medium-haul operator AirAsia X currently operates most of the group’s widebodies, flying a fleet of Airbus A330-300s.<br/>
Rex Airlines’ expectation of posting a profit this financial year has been dashed, with the predominantly regional carrier revising its rosy prediction to warn of a $35m loss, just as the aviation market booms. The airline has blamed the global shortage of pilots and engineers, as well as “supply chain shocks” after the peak of the pandemic for disrupting its network and contributing to the revised financial result. Rex said it had been forced to make “significant reductions” to its flight schedule in recent months “to match the need for aircraft, pilot and engineers to what is available”. Roaring post-pandemic travel demand has set up rival Qantas to post a record multi-billion dollar profit this financial year and Virgin Australia to also record a bumper result. However much of Rex’s ageing fleet of 36-seater Saab 340 aircraft it uses for regional routes remain grounded and the significant maintenance task in the face of engineer and parts shortages have forced the airline to cut regional services. Rex also said appetite for domestic business travel had been down in recent months, as companies were instead footing the bill for exorbitant international air fares. “Business travel in the months of May and June have significantly reduced due largely to corporate travel budgets being exhausted following exponential increases of international fares,” Rex said.<br/>