Finnair (Helsinki) on June 21 operated this Airbus A319-112 registered as OH-LVE (msn 1791) on its last revenue flight. Since then the 1953 retrojet “Silver Bird” livery has been removed and the airframe has been returned to Hermes Aviation. The special color scheme was rolled out at Helsinki on July 26, 2008 to celebrate the airline’s 85th Anniversary. Goodbye Silver Bird.
Copyright Photo: Arnd Wolf.
Finnair:ย 
Austrian Airlines (Vienna) is planning to acquire seven additional Airbus A320s in order to replace its remaining Boeing 737s by the summer of 2013. Austrian currently operates seven Boeing 737-800s.
Read the full story from Fox Business: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Tony Storck.
Austrian Airlines:ย 
JetBlue Airways (New York) today announced its intent to serve Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, the largest destination in the British Overseas Territory’s archipelago. Beginning on November 15, 2012, the airline will serve Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM) with three times weekly service on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Saturday service from Boston’s Logan International Airport (BOS) beginning on November 17, 2012.
Destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean now make up almost one-third of the carrier’s route network.ย Grand Cayman will be JetBlue’s 74th destination and the 23rd destination in the Caribbean. Earlier this month, JetBlue also announced intent to serve two other new Caribbean destinations: Cartagena, Colombia beginning on November 2, 2012 and Samana, Dominican Republic starting on November 14, 2012, both from New York’s JFK.
With this new addition, by the end of 2012 JetBlue will serve the following Latin American and Caribbean destinations: Aruba; The Bahamas (Nassau); Barbados; Bermuda; Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman); Colombia (Bogota and Cartagena); Costa Rica (Liberia and San Jose); Dominican Republic (La Romana, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Samana, Santiago and Santo Domingo); Jamaica (Kingston and Montego Bay); Mexico (Cancun); Puerto Rico (Aguadilla, Ponce and San Juan); St. Croix; St. Lucia; St. Maarten; St. Thomas; and, Turks and Caicos (Providenciales).
JetBlue’s schedule between New York and Grand Cayman:
| JFK to GCM: | GCM to JFK: |
| Depart โ Arrive | Depart โ Arrive |
| 7:00 a.m. โ 11:00 a.m. | 12:00 p.m. โย 3:50 p.m. |
| – Flights operate three times weekly on Mon., Thurs., Sat. beginning Thurs., Nov. 15 , 2012 โ – All times local – |
|
JetBlue’s schedule between Boston and Grand Cayman:
| BOS to GCM: | GCM to BOS: |
| Depart โ Arrive | Depart โ Arrive |
| 10:25 a.m. โ 2:35 p.m. | 3:30 p.m. โ 7:25 p.m. |
| – Flights operate on Saturdays beginning Sat. Nov. 17, 2012 โ – All times local – |
|
JetBlue’s flights to Grand Cayman from Boston and New York will be operated with its Airbus A320 aircraft.
Copyright Photo: Eric Dunetz. Airbus A320-232 N746JB in the New York Jets motif departs from JFK.
JetBlue Airways:ย 
Routes from New York (JFK):
Please click on the map to expand.
Airberlin (Berlin) is coming to Chicago in 2013 to connect with its Oneworld partner American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth). Airberlin onย March 23, 2013 will start operating direct flights from Berlin (Brandenburg) to Chicago (O’Hare). This is the first time a nonstop route has connected Berlin with Chicago.
Airberlin will start operations on the new route at the beginning of the Easter holidays at the end of March 2013. When the summer schedule starts in May 2013, Airberlin will increase the number of direct flights from three to five per week.
From May 1, 2013, an Airberlin Airbus A330-200 will make the nine-hour flight to the city on Lake Michigan on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Between March 23 and 30th April 30, 2013, Airberlin will operate the direct flight every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Takeoff from Berlin is at 10:00 and the flight lands at Chicagoโs OโHare International Airport at 12:10. The return flight from Chicago leaves at 15:25 und arrives in the German capital at 07:00 on the following morning.
Copyright Photo: Mark Durbin.
Airberlin:ย 
UTair Aviation (Russia) (Khanty-Mansiysk)ย has signed a firm contract with Airbus for 20 A321 aircraft during the Farnborough Airshow. This is the largest order for the type received from a carrier in the region and the first time that UTair has ordered Airbus aircraft.
UTairโs A321s will feature a single-class cabin layout seating 220 passengers. The airline is planning to operate these new aircraft to further develop its charter network of popular leisure destinations.
UTairย was founded in 1967. The airline is operating a fleet of some 200 aircraft to over 60 domestic and some 40 international destinations.
Image: Airbus.
UTair (Russia):ย 
Air New Zealand (Auckland) has added an additional “15 Years” logo to its Airbus A320 Star Alliance logojet.
On May 14, 1997, five airlines, namely United Airlines,ย Lufthansa,ย Air Canada,ย Thai Airways Internationalย andย Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS)ย launched the Star Alliance.
The five airlines adopted the traditional five-pointed star logo to represent the five founding airlines.
Air New Zealand joined the alliance in March of 1999.
Copyright Photo: Colin Hunter. Airbus A320-232 ZK-OJH (msn 2257) completes its final approach into Auckland with the additional markings.
Hot New Photos:ย 
easyJet (UK) (London-Luton) and Nicarnica Aviation have entered a partnership with Airbus to test the AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector) ash detection equipment on their A340-300 test aircraft at the speed and altitude of commercial aircraft.
The first phase of testing is taking place from July 4 through 14and initial test flights at altitudes of up to 40,000 feet have been successful. The tests on the A340 include mounting the equipment externally on the left side of the aircraft fuselage, with recording equipment and real-time monitors placed inside the cabin allowing viewing of the sky ahead. The flights have been performed near Airbusโ home base at Toulouse, France, to first assess the sensorโs physical behaviour when mounted on the aircraft and exposed to flight environment and then the performance of the detection system without the presence of volcanic ash.
If volcanic activity happens during this test phase at Stromboli or Etna the aircraft may then be flown to Italy to test the equipment at commercial jet flight altitudes and speeds against any volcanic ash emitted. Alternatively, if the meteorological conditions allow then the test aircraft will in the next few days fly over the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco to prove the equipment can detect the fine particles of sand at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet and a distance of up to 50km, using the Saharan Air Layer as a proxy for volcanic ash.
The AVOID equipment has been fitted to the Airbus test aircraft, which the Civil Aviation Authority asked to be made available during the period running up to and during the forthcoming Olympics. Now that the first phase of testing is successfully underway, easyJet, Nicarnica Aviation and Airbus have been able to commit to providing this ash detection support.
In the event of a volcanic eruption sending ash towards UK airspace, AVOID would give vital, real time information on the actual amounts of ash in the atmosphere. When incorporated into the safe fly protocols now agreed by the industry and overseen by the CAA and other ash measurement data and prediction models operated by the Met Office, this could enable aircraft to fly safely to and from London and the rest of the UK.
easyJet (UK):ย 
China Aircraft Leasing Company (CALC) (Hong Kong) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 2012 Farnborough International Airshow for 36 current generation A320 Family aircraft. The deal includes eight A321s, the largest member of the A320 Family and operators will be able to select Airbusโ new fuel saving Sharklets.
CALC currently owns a portfolio of 11 Airbus aircraft including five A320s, five A321s and one A330. It also has three A330s and five A320s aircraft in its delivery pipeline. With this new commitment, CALCโs Airbus fleet will grow to over 50.
Image: Airbus.
CIT Group Inc.ย (CIT) (cit.com)ย (New York) today announced from the Farnborough International Air Show thatย CIT Aerospaceย has placed orders with Airbus for 10 A330 aircraft in 2012. Five A330 aircraft were ordered earlier this year in conjunction with the cancellation of orders for four A320 family aircraft and the exercise of an aircraft purchase option. An agreement to acquire the additional five aircraft was entered into at the Air Show this morning. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2014.
As of March 31, 2012, CIT owned or financed a fleet of more than 325 commercial aircraft, including 157 Airbus aircraft on operating lease. With this new order, the company now has a total order book of 162 aircraft scheduled for delivery through 2019, of which 89 are for Airbus aircraft.
Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong) today announced that it intends to add the A350-1000 to its future A350 XWB fleet, with an agreement to place a new order for 10 aircraft. In addition, the Hong Kong-based airline will convert 16 of its existing orders for the A350-900 to the larger A350-1000. The acquisition of the A350-1000, which is subject to the approval of the Board of the airline, will bring the total number of A350 XWB aircraft ordered by Cathay Pacific to 48. The airline also has separate lease agreements to acquire two more aircraft.
The A350-1000 is the largest version of the A350 XWB family and typically seats 350 passengers in a three class layout. The aircraft is capable of flying 8,400 nautical miles non-stop and will be operated by Cathay Pacific on higher density routes, including its longest non-stop flights to Europe and North America. The aircraft will be powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines delivering 97,000lbs of thrust โ the most powerful engines ever developed for an Airbus aircraft.
Image: Airbus.
Cathay Pacific:ย 
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