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Browsing Tag: Airbus

Aeroflot Plans to Sell its Tupolev Jets – Buying Boeing & Airbus

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Aeroflot - Russian Airlines, Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85642 (cn 88A778)

Aeroflot - Russian Airlines, Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85642 (cn 88A778)

Aeroflot, Russia’s largest carrier, is planning to rid its fleet of Tupolev TU-154 jets and acquiring additional Boeing and Airbus aircraft. It is planning to sell its remaining Tupolev jets, but the airline will still have six Russian built Illyushin Il-96’s to handle some international flights.

This is a big change from an airline that at one time had no Boeing or Airbus aircraft. Aeroflot is hoping to cater more to business travelers and TU-154’s are not known for their quality or silence.

Aeroflot also is looking to lower the cost of its routes. The airline’s chief executive, Vitaly Savelyev, explained the airline is currently losing money on 40% of its routes and looking to avoid thousands of layoffs over the next few years. Instead they are hoping the improved savings with fuel consumption, less maintenance costs, and increase traffic due to flying newer aircraft will allow the airline to avoid layoffs.

With the current global economy and the fact there are hundreds of other older Boeing and Airbus aircraft sitting in the desert, it will most likely be difficult for Aeroflot to find buyers for its 26 TU-154s. Personally it is a bit sad to not be able to see a TU-154 in Aeroflot livery, however it would be worth it to someday see a Boeing 747 or Airbus A380 in the airline’s livery.

Image: osdu

United Airlines Decides What New Planes to Get

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United Airlines Boeing 757

United Airlines Boeing 757

United Airlines has been holding off for quite awhile from buying any new planes. They had talked about reducing their fleet, however, now they plan to order up to 150 aircraft by this fall.

As they have been waiting for a good time to buy, their fleet of almost 400 aircraft have aged. Now they are looking to replace their wide-bodied jets and Boeing 757’s with new aircraft. They are also hoping to  get rid of their almost 30-strong fleet of Boeing 737’s.

It’s a large order, which gives them tremendous buying power. United Airlines states they are in talks with Boeing and Airbus and only want to purchase planes from one of the two manufacturers. This could be a huge payoff to the winning bidder and will probably create a lot of interesting deals for United to consider. With airlines cancelling orders for aircraft already being built, this could be a better than average boom for either Airbus or Boeing.

Source: KOMO Image: code20photog

First Airbus Built in China Has Successful Trial Flight

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The first Airbus A320 plane assembled in the northern Chinese

The first Airbus A320 plane assembled in the northern China

The first Chinese-built Airbus A320 passed its flight trial and is planned to be delivered to China’s Sichuan Airlines by the end of June. This is the first Airbus built outside of Europe and there are quite a few more planned. Airbus hopes to be producing four A320’s per month by the end of 2011.

Airbus ressures customers of the planes quality, even though it was built in a different location. “This A320 assembled in China unquestionably demonstrated the same quality and performance as those assembled and delivered in Hamburg or Toulouse,” Fernando Alonso, senior vice president at Airbus, said in a statement.

Many analysts see China as a booming airline market. With more and more people being able to afford to fly, air travel has been taking off (yes, pun intended). China is even attempting to build its own airliners, the ARJ-21.

Source: Reuters Image: CCTV