Jul 06 2013
The Malaysian airline Firefly took delivery of its first new ATR 72-600 aircraft on July 5, 2013. This represents the first of 20 ATR 72-600s ordered by Malaysia Airlines for Firefly in December 2012 with options on 16 further aircraft for its other regional-airline subsidiary MASwings.
Firefly operates 12 ATR 72-500s and with the arrival of the new ATR 72-600s will triple its ATR 72 fleet, taking its total fleet size to more than 30 aircraft when all are delivered.
Jul 05 2013
Wideroe had completed a Extended-Service Program on the first five aircraft in its Dash 8-100 fleet. These aircraft had been nearing the end of their original service life, but the airline saw that refurbishing these aircraft made economic sense. As such, the airline established life-extension modifications as part of an Extended-Service Program.
The airline believes that the modifications will increase the aircraft service life by up to 120,000 flight cycles. The airline plans to place another ten aircraft through the program before 2015. The program sees the replacement of about 100 components, including the horizontal stabilizer, assorted actuators, manifolds, pressure switches, valves and other components.
Wideroe currently operates nineteen Dash 8-100s whose overall average age is 19.5 years.
Jul 03 2013
Azerbaijan Airlines took delivery of its first of four Embraer 190s on July 3rd, 2013. The airline ordered four Embraer 190s in November 2012 and also leased two Embraer 170s. The five remaining aircraft are due to be delivered by the end of 2013.
AZAL’s Embraer 190s have a single-class, 106 seat configuration. The Embraer 170s have a 76 seat single class configuration.
Jun 26 2013
Bombardier indicated on June 26th, 2013 that the prototype CSeries aircraft FTV-1 had completed ground vibration tests as well as software upgrades and corresponding tests. As a result, Bombardier’s Flight Test Centre has applied to Transport Canada for a flight test permit to allow the first flight of the FTV1.
As of June 26th, 2013, there were booked orders and commitments for 388 CSeries aircraft, which included firm orders for 177 CSeries aircraft.