RUMEURS de Commandes

FARNBOROUGH (Royaume-Uni) - La compagnie de location d'avions irlandaise Avolon a passé une commande pour douze Boeing 737 de nouvelle génération pour 920 millions de dollars, ont annoncé les deux partenaires mardi au salon aéronautique de Farnborough.

Le patron de la division commerciale de Boeing, Jim Albaugh, a salué l'arrivée d'un "tout nouveau client", lors d'une conférence de presse au deuxième jour du salon, qui a ouvert ses portes lundi près de Londres.

HK Airlines tentatively signs for A350s, A330s

Hong Kong Airlines has tentatively agreed to acquire 15 Airbus A350s as well as another 10 A330s.
The Asian carrier has signed a memorandum of understanding for the twin-jets at the Farnborough Air Show. The A330s are the -200 variant.
Airbus says the deliveries of the A330s will commence in 2012 and the A350s in 2018.
HK Airlines has not disclosed an engine selection for the A330s, but all A350s are currently only available with Rolls-Royce Trent XWB powerplants.
"Our latest commitment underscores our ambition to develop an extensive long haul network offering world-class service," says HK Airlines president Yang Jian Hong.
If the agreement is firmed the carrier's widebody orders with Airbus will include 15 A350s and 18 A330s. It also has 30 A320s on firm order

Air Lease orders 10 ATR 72-600s

Former [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] chief Steven Udvar-Hazy has ordered 10 ATR 72-600s as he continues to build the fleet for his new Air Lease Corporation venture.
Deliveries will begin in the fourth quarter of 2011 and ATR says Air Lease has taken options on a further 10 aircraft.
Air Lease has already announced orders for 31 Airbus A320s and 20 A321s at the Farnborough Air Show.
Udvar-Hazy's company, which was established in February, is also acquiring five Air Berlin aircraft: two Boeing 737-800s, two Airbus A320s and an A321, under sale and lease-back transactions

RBS commits to 95 Airbus and Boeing jets

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] is continuing the domination of the leasing sector at the Farnborough show, revealing itself as the customer for 95 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft.
The orders, previously undisclosed, consist of 52 firm [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-family aircraft and 43 firm Boeing 737s, which have a combined value of more than $7.6 billion at list prices.
RBS' announcement marks the first time the operating lessor has placed orders at an air show. "We felt it was an appropriate time to firm the Airbus and Boeing orders and to re-emphasise our commitment to the sector," RBS Aviation Capital's chief Peter Barrett tells Flight Daily News.
"Our ongoing commitments to Airbus and Boeing aircraft underline that we remain positive on the outlook for both RBS Aviation Capital and the wider aircraft leasing sector."
Deliveries are scheduled through mid-2015, with the first aircraft being Boeings. RBS received the first aircraft, a 737-800, last week and placed it on lease to Garuda Indonesia. Two additional 737s aircraft are scheduled for later this year and will be leased to Shandong Airlines.
No Airbus deliveries are scheduled in 2010 but RBS will split the A320-family aircraft engine order between CFM International's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and International Aero Engines' [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], depending on the customer demand.
Barrett explains that, although the 95 new aircraft will join over a five-year period, the peak of deliveries will be in 2013-14.
"When we placed the orders in late 2008 with Airbus and Boeing, it was always the intention to focus on that period," he says.
RBS' announcement follows orders from lessors GECAS, Air Lease Corporation. and Avolon earlier this week. Barrett says operating lessor's backlogs with OEMs is lower than historic averages with both manufacturers.
RBS recently took delivery of its 145th A320-family aircraft and its 125th 737. "Both of these aircraft types have been instrumental in helping us to create a highly successful global business that has pioneered the strategy of owning and leasing narrowbody, commodity aircraft types that are liquid, investor friendly and easily tradable," it says.
Barrett says the operating lessor wants to be ready as customers are reporting improving trends: "The recovery has started and we are seeing encouraging yields and load factors from airlines".

Sukhoi a annoncé mardi une commande portant sur 12 Superjet 100 venant d'Orient Thai Airlines.
Lors d'une conférence de presse, le directeur général du constructeur aéronautique russe, Mikhaïl Pogossian, a précisé que le Superjet 100, premier avion civil construit en Russie depuis l'effondrement de l'Union soviétique, avait déjà engrangé 131 commandes fermes et que le premier exemplaire serait livré d'ici la fin de 2010.
Sukhoi, qui construit le Superjet 100 avec l'italien Finmeccanica, a précisé qu'Orient Thai Airlines avait pris une option sur 12 autres exemplaires.
Le constructeur n'a pas révélé le montant de la commande mais, lundi, il avait annoncé la vente de 30 Superjet 100 au groupe indonésien Kartika pour un prix estimé de 951 millions de dollars

Air Austral, la compagnie française spécialisée dans la desserte de l'Océan Indien a signé un contrat de 501 millons de dollars au prix catalogue avec Boeing pour l'acquisition de 2 B777 200 LR (long rayon d'action) . Cette commande faisait déjà partie de la liste établie par Boeing mais l'acquéreur n'avait pas été identifié

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S.A.T., the holding company of Berlin based airline Germania, has firmed up its Memorandum of Understanding and signed a contract for five Airbus A319s. Germania will thus become a new Airbus operator and will start a complete fleet rollover to eco-efficient Airbus A319s. Deliveries of the aircraft will start in 2011. Germania will fly the A319s to their 30 destinations in Germany, Europe, around the Mediterranean region and the Middle East.

Germania has chosen a spacious single class cabin layout for 150 passengers, offering even more comfort and more space for their passengers. The cabin will be equipped with a state-of-the-art entertainment system, containing video screens and in-seat audio channels. Germania’s A319s will be powered by CFM engines.

“The A319 is indeed the most popular aircraft in its segment. Germania and its customers will profit from its proven efficiency and its enormous flexibility for charter and schedules routes. With the modern and eco-efficient A319s we will also provide an important contribution to reducing the impact on environment”, said Axel Trampnau, Chief Executive Officer of Germania.

“A complete fleet renewal is a major step. We are very delighted by S.A.T.’s and Germania’s decision to make the Airbus A319 the reference aircraft of their future fleet”, said Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO at Airbus. “It is an endorsement of the leading market position of the A320 Family as airlines profit from its unique efficiency and reliability.”

Airbus aircraft share a unique cockpit and operational commonality, allowing airlines to use the same pool of pilots, cabin crews and maintenance engineers, bringing operational flexibility and resulting in significant cost savings.

The A320 Family (A318, A319, A320 and A321) is recognised as the benchmark single-aisle aircraft family. With more than 6,500 aircraft sold, and some 4,300 aircraft delivered to more than 310 customers and operators worldwide, the A320 Family is the world’s best-selling single-aisle aircraft family.

SpiceJet orders new Boeing planes on buoyant outlook

New Delhi: Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd, which is all set to fly international routes this year, has ordered 30 Boeing aircraft worth $2.7 billion for delivery from 2014.
The Gurgaon-based carrier will also add 15 aircraft in the next two years of which seven aircraft will be added in this fiscal, director Ajay Singh told reporters on Tuesday.
“As the aviation sector grows low-cost airlines are expected to do very well. We expect SpiceJet to take a disproportionate share of the growth,” Singh said.
The fresh orders were for Boeing 737-800 aircraft. SpiceJet currently has a fleet of 21 Boeing 737-800 and 737-900 aircraft and has about 13% share in the domestic market. The new aircraft could be owned or taken on lease, Singh said. All its existing aircraft are on lease.
SpiceJet is expected to start international operations by September 2010 and has already received permission to fly to Dhaka, Kathmandu and Male.
Last month, Sun TV founder Kalanithi Maran and his unlisted firm Kal Airways agreed to buy 37.7% in Spicejet and also made an open offer for a further 20%.
According to a public announcement of the open offer, the acquirers, subject to regulatory approval, also proposed to change the name and registered office of SpiceJet upon the offer completion and acquisition of shares.
Singh on Tuesday said the firm has no plans to re-brand the airline or shift its head office, though the registered office might be shifted to Chennai, where Maran is based.
It also has no plans currently to raise funds, Singh said.
Earlier on Tuesday, SpiceJet reported a net profit of Rs5.52 crore in the June quarter compared with Rs2.63 crore a year ago as net sales rose nearly 35% to Rs708 crore.
Its load factors for the quarter rose to 88% from 76% and operating margins expanded to 8.3% from 4%.
India’s aviation industry is witnessing a turnaround following an economic recovery and a surge in air traffic. Domestic airlines carried about 22% more passengers between January and June 2010 from a year ago, government data showed.
Rival Jet Airways (India) Ltd, India’s top private carrier by sales, swung to profit in the June-quarter, while rival Kingfisher Airlines reported a narrower loss.
“We expect the industry to grow by 16% this year and are confident that we will continue to outperform the industry,” SpiceJet said in a statement.
Shares in Spicejet, which the market values at about Rs2100 crore, closed up 0.27% at Rs56.05 in a firm Mumbai market.

Chinese carrier Shenzhen Airlines is to purchase 10 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] A320s, delivery of which is to begin in two years' time.

The agreement comes four months after flag-carrier Air China took a majority shareholding in the operator.

Air China has confirmed the deal. It says that the aircraft will arrive over 2012-13.

"The transaction will expand the fleet capacity of the group," it adds, putting the increase at 2% based on the fleet size at the end of 2009.

It values the agreement at $814 million at list prices but adds that the deal includes concessions.

No engine selection has been disclosed.

Shenzhen Airlines' [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-family fleet is powered by a mix of CFM International CFM56s and International Aero Engines V2500s.

Bullish Boeing 737-700 operator Southwest Airlines has unveiled it is evaluating a possible introduction of the larger 737-800.

While the carrier says no final decision has been made, it stresses given Boeing's long lead time from order to delivery it needs to finalise plans by 1 December to support deliveries beginning in early 2012.

"While the aircraft introduces additional complexities to our operation, we believe our existing network could be enhanced by converting some of our future 737-700 deliveries to 737-800s," says carrier chief operating
officer Michael Van de Ven on the carrier's blog site.

Southwest believes the -800 could supply scheduling flexibility by allowing additional capacity in high-demand, slot controlled or gate-restricted airports, says Van de Ven.

Southwest currently has a fleet of 544 aircraft -- 346 137-seat 737-700s, 25 122-seat 737-500s and 173
137-seat 737-300s.

The 737-800 can be configured with 189 seats in an all economy configuration.Southwest recently decided to
accelerate the replacement of its 737 classics, converting six purchase rights to 2014 and exercising 25 737-700 options for delivery from 2011.

However, the carrier stresses the changes will keep its fleet count essentially flat as it keeps its capacity growth conservative during the tenuous economic recovery. It projects a modest capacity increase in 2011, while available seat mile growth for the third quarter of 2010 should reach 2.5% and 4.5% in the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter estimates may look high in the context of constrained capacity growth, but analysts at JP Morgan recently pointed out that US carriers are coming off record utilisation lows for the fourth quarter of 2009.

ABUJA, 11 août (Reuters) - Le Nigeria, pays le plus peuplé d'Afrique, va acquérir trois avions neufs pour la flotte présidentielle - deux Falcon 7X de l'avionneur français Dassault Aviation et un Gulfstream G550 pour un coût total de 150 millions de dollars.

Cette décision, approuvée mercredi en conseil des ministres, intervient au lendemain de l'annonce par le gouvernement d'Abuja d'aggraver un plus la dette publique pour financer l'élection présidentielle prévue en janvier 2011.
Le premier Falcon sera livré vers la fin de l'année, le second jet français ainsi que le Gulfstream de fabrication américaine le seront au deuxième trimestre 2011, soit après le scrutin présidentiel.
Le financement de ces achats était déjà prévu dans le budget 2010 mais l'annonce, faite par la ministre de l'Information, Dora Akunyili, pose la question des priorités en matière de dépense de cet important producteur d'hydrocarbures.
Mardi, les parlementaires ont adopté un projet visant à récolter 585 millions de dollars via une émission de bons du Trésor pour financer les opérations de révision des listes électorales et l'achat d'urnes supplémentaires par la commission électorale.
L'actuel chef de l'Etat, le sudiste Jonathan Goodluck, qui a succédé au président Umaru Yar'Adua, un Nordiste musulman décédé cette année des suites d'une maladie, n'a pas encore annoncé officiellement s'il se présenterait mais la plupart de ses compatriotes penchent pour cette hypothèse. (Felix Onuah, version française Jean-Loup Fiévet).