Tag Archives: A320-200

Lufthansa wishes Munich Airport a Happy 25th Birthday

Lufthansa issued this statement:

“Happy Birthday! 25 Years Munich Airport.” This is the branded message a Lufthansa Airbus will be carrying throughout Europe. The plane can also be seen on Saturday, May 20 during Family Day – the airport’s big birthday celebration suitable for the whole family. The message will stay on the Airbus A320-214 with the registration D-AIUQ (msn 6947) until fall. “We have chosen this unusual birthday greeting because we are celebrating a shared 25-year success story. The growth of Lufthansa in Munich is closely connected with that of the airport. Such a close partnership is unique worldwide,” says Wilken Bormann, CEO of Hub Munich.

Shared history

The partnership between Lufthansa and Munich Airport goes back to the very beginning. On May 17, 1992 a Lufthansa Boeing 737 was the last aircraft to depart from the airport in Riem, shortly before 11:00 PM. The following morning, two Lufthansa planes, named “Erding” and “Freising”, landed at the same time on the south and north runways of Munich Airport. The first plane to takeoff at the new airport also bore the Lufthansa logo: on the next day, at 5:59 AM, a Boeing 747 took off on an Alpine scenic flight carrying honored guests.

The first steps in developing the future Lufthansa hub in Munich were taken as early as in1995 with the deployment of two long-haul Airbus A340 aircraft. Three years later, the Lufthansa management board approved the airline’s involvement in what would eventually become Terminal 2. For the first time, an airline and an airport were planning, financing, and building a terminal together. The terminal building opened in 2003, fully tailoring to the needs of transfer passengers. Terminal 2 laid the foundation for more rapid development at the Munich Hub. Just one year after opening, it hosted its ten millionth passenger. In 2010, the supervisory boards of Flughafen München GmbH (FMG) and Lufthansa approved an expansion in the form of a satellite building, which opened in April 2016. Since then, Terminal 2 has the capacity to handle 36 million passengers. Another milestone followed in February 2017 – as Lufthansa and Munich Airport welcomed the first A350. In the future, 15 of these most modern and environmentally friendly long-haul aircraft will be based at the Munich Lufthansa hub. Shortly afterwards, the next joint success followed: Munich Airport’s Terminal 2 was named the best terminal in the world at the London Skytrax Institute’s 2017 World Airport Awards.

Photo: Lufthansa.

Jazeera Airways celebrates Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days with a special logo jet

jazeera-a320-200-9k-caj-17-national-and-liberation-daysgrdjazeeralrw

Jazeera Airways, the first private airline in Kuwait and the Middle East has embellished an Airbus A320-200 aircraft from its fleet and dedicated gates at Kuwait International Airport with the national colors of patriotism to commemorate Kuwait’s National and Liberation days.

The airline continued;

During the most celebrated month of the year, the Airbus A320 with registration 9K-CAJ is furnished with the Kuwaiti flags alongside captivating text that reads “daaam 3eezik ya Kuwait” as a gesture of airline’s pride of the Kuwaiti heritage and liberation.

Epitomizing Kuwaiti culture in their approach to airline hospitality and service, Jazeera Airways has played its part in the country’s economic growth and is presently one of the largest operators at Kuwait airport.

Photo: Jazeera Airways.

Greek newcomer Orange2fly Airlines launches operations

Orange2fly Airlines (Athens) is a new Greek airline charter company.

Orange2fly is now operating in own its full colors with titles on its first Airbus A320, the pictured SX-ORG (msn 1407) pictured today at Palma de Mallorca. This A320 has been operating on behalf of Aigle Azur during the peak summer season and has now returned to Orange2fly on September 12.

The new airline describes itself:

“orange2fly” Airlines is a brand new Greek airline company, based in Athens, Greece which shall carry out worldwide operations in ACMI and the charter business. The company was established in September 2015 and will operate under a Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority, Air Operator Certificate in accordance with the European Aviation Safety Agency Regulation. (EASA)

“orange2fly” Airlines aims at filling a niche section in the air travel and cargo market, ensuring high quality service and customer satisfaction. The company will order initially with an Airbus 320 of 180 Economy seats.

Allegiant Air announces 19 new routes and three new destinations

Allegiant Air (Las Vegas) today (January 12) announced 19 new routes and service to three new destinations including Baltimore-Washington (BWI); Destin, Florida; and El Paso, Texas.

New routes announced include:

Nonstop Service to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) from:

Savannah, Georgia – begins April 29, 2016
Cincinnati – begins April 29, 2016
Tulsa, Oklahoma – begins May 19, 2016
Asheville, North Carolina – begins May 19, 2016
Knoxville, Tennessee – begins May 20, 2016
Lexington, Kentucky -begins June 3, 2016

Nonstop Service to Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) from:

Indianapolis – begins April 8, 2016
Pittsburgh – begins April 8, 2016
Baltimore – begins April 29, 2016
Lexington, Kentucky – begins June 2, 2016

Nonstop Service to Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS) from:

Cincinnati – begins May 20, 2016 and ends Sept. 5, 2016
St. Louis – begins June 2, 2016

Nonstop Service to Las Vegas McCarran International Airport (LAS) from:

El Paso, Texas – begins May 6, 2016
Knoxville, Tennessee – begins May 13, 2016

Nonstop Service to San Diego International Airport (SAN) from:

Stockton, California – begins April 7, 2016
El Paso, Texas – begins May 6, 2016

Nonstop Service to Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) from:

New Orleans – begins April 14, 2016
Memphis, Tennessee – begins April 15, 2016
Richmond, Virginia – begins April 15, 2016

Nonstop Service to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) from:

New Orleans – begins June 3, 2016

Copyright Photo: Jay Selman/AirlinersGallery.com. Ex-Iberia Airbus A320-214 N224NV (msn 1694) departs from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Allegiant aircraft slide show:

Wizz Air announces three new routes from Budapest

Wizz Air (Budapest) has announced further growth of its low fare route network and launched three new services from Budapest to Liverpool and Keflavik (near Reykjavik), commencing in March as well as a Budapest-Ibiza service commencing in June.

With this announcement, Iceland becomes the 23rd country for Wizz Air.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 HA-LYS (msn 6662) taxies at EuroAirport serving the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg area.

Wizz Air aircraft slide show:

JetBlue arrives in Daytona Beach

JetBlue Airways (New York) today announced the start of service to its newest destination with the launch of flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB). JetBlue now serves eight Florida destinations and offers more flights between the Empire State and the Sunshine State than any other airline with up to 83 daily nonstops.

Flights operate daily and provide the only nonstop service between Daytona Beach and New York City.

The new service to Daytona Beach will create a direct link between JetBlue’s main base of operations in New York and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace. In 2007, JetBlue partnered with Embry-Riddle to launch the University Gateway Program, a unique opportunity that creates a path to a career with the airline for aspiring aviators.

JetBlue Schedule Between New York (JFK) and Daytona Beach (DAB)

JFK – DAB Flight #393 DAB – JFK Flight #500
10:29 a.m. – 1:13 p.m. 2:00 p.m. – 4:21 p.m.

Flights will operate daily on JetBlue’s spacious, award-winning, 150-seat A320 aircraft.

Copyright Photo: Jay Selman/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 N561JB (msn 1927) departs from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

JetBlue Airways aircraft slide show:

China Southern Airlines and Virgin America to expand their codeshare agreement

Virgin America (San Francisco) and China Southern Airlines (Guangzhou) have announced a codeshare agreement to offer seamless booking and travel between China, Southeast Asia and multiple Virgin America destinations across the United States.

Under the new agreement, China Southern will place its two-digit airline code (CZ) and flight numbers on a range of Virgin America routes operating from Los Angeles and San Francisco – including West Coast flights to and from Boston, Chicago, Dallas Love Field, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Newark, New York (JFK), Seattle, San Diego and Washington DC.

This partnership will bring expanded choice and convenience for travelers flying between China Southern’s numerous Chinese and Southeast Asia destinations and the United States. This agreement is unique in that China Southern is the only airline offering non-stop service between Guangzhou and Wuhan and the United States.

China Southern offers daily flights from Guangzhou to San Francisco (three flights per week with one stop in Wuhan), ten flights per week from Guangzhou to Los Angeles, and daily flights from Guangzhou to New York.

This new agreement builds and expands on China Southern’s existing interline arrangement with Virgin America. China Southern is Virgin America’s sixth codeshare agreement and joins the airline’s growing partner portfolio.

Top Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. China Southern’s Boeing 777-31B ER B-2029 (msn 43224) departs from Los Angeles.

Below Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Virgin America’s Airbus A320-214 N855VA (msn 5179) prepares to land at Washington (Reagan National).

Virgin America aircraft slide show:

China Southern aircraft slide show:

Finnair to add additional seats to its Airbus narrow body fleet

Finnair (Helsinki) has announced this plan to add extra seats to its Airbus narrow body fleet:

Due to a growing need for feeder traffic capacity, Finnair has decided to improve the space efficiency of its current Airbus narrow-body fleet, operating mainly on its European routes. According to the plan, seats will be added to the aircraft primarily without changing the leg space available to the passenger, so as to preserve travel comfort. Space efficiency will be improved by modifying storage and technical space at the front and rear of the aircraft.

The value of the investment is approximately EUR 40 million, and it includes 22 narrow-body Airbus aircraft in Finnair’s fleet. The cabin layout change excludes five A321ER aircraft, which are already configured according to the plan, having 209 seats. The cabin reconfiguration is estimated to take two weeks per aircraft during 2017. The reconfiguration adds 6 to 13 seats depending on the aircraft type, increasing the passenger capacity of Finnair’s Airbus narrow-body fleet as measured by available seat kilometers by close to 4 percent.

Finnair has previously stated it needs more European feeder traffic capacity with a view to the growth of its long-haul capacity. The additional capacity will be acquired mainly by increasing the average size of its narrow-body aircraft over the next few years.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

Arctic Aviation Assets leases 12 Airbus A320neo airliners to HK Express

Arctic Aviation Assets Ltd. (AAA), Norwegian’s wholly owned subsidiary, has signed an agreement to lease 12 Airbus A320neo to HK Express (Hong Kong). The 12 aircraft will be delivered between 2016 and 2018.

AAA (Norwegian) has 100 Airbus A320neo airliners on order.

Arctic Aviation Assets Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle and was established on August 9, 2013. The company is based in Ireland and currently manages a portfolio of 100 aircraft in addition to Norwegian’s orders for over 267 aircraft delivered during the period 2015 to 2022. The Company also has purchase options on another 160 aircraft.

Copyright Photo: Robbie Shaw/AirlinersGallery.com. HK Express currently operates a fleet of Airbus A320s with the current engines. A320-232 B-LCE (msn 2299) approaches the runway at the Hong Kong base and hub.

HK Express aircraft slide show:

JetBlue launches flights from Albany, NY to both Orlando and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood

JetBlue Airways (New York) yesterday (December 10) launched two new routes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) to Albany International Airport (ALB).

JetBlue’s Schedule from/to Albany as of December 10, 2015:

ALB – FLL

12:50 p.m. – 4:06 p.m.

FLL – ALB

9:14 a.m. – 12:07 p.m.

ALB – MCO

4:45 p.m. – 7:54 p.m.

MCO – ALB

1:20 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Daily service from Albany to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Orlando operates on JetBlue’s 150-seat A320 aircraft.