Today I’m covering an aircraft order, however it isn’t exactly a new agreement but more of an announcement. Brazilian airline Azul Linhas Aereas will be adding to its fleet more A330-900neo to help expand and boost its international long haul operations. Here’s what the news is all about.
In this post:
- More of a disclosure than an order
- The details of the order
- The current Azul long haul operations an possible uses
More of a disclosure than a new order by Azul
So although it is being announced just now, this is not exactly a new order to Airbus. The Brazilian carrier Azul had placed this order with the European manufacturer in June of 2023. The order however was added to the undisclosed line of the order book and not officially announced, until now.
Therefore this is more of an announcement for the press rather than the airline placing a brand new order just now in December 2023. Orders end up in the undisclosed line of the order book for multiple reasons. Some entities do not want to make of public domain their order or some airlines might want to time the announcement in strategic moments.
Image by Airbus
The Details of The A330-900 Order
Azul is already a very large airline. Both in terms of flight operations and fleet. The carrier operates both narrow body and wide body planes. As a matter of fact the fleet is just shy of the 200 unit mark, including jets, props and turboprops.
As of December 2023 Azul already operates the Airbus A330-900 in its daily flight operations. The airline owns 5 of them, which make the long haul fleet along with other 2 A350-900s and 4 A330-200. The A330-200s should be on the way out as the neo planes come in. This will allow an UX standardisation.
The order just announced will see Azul take delivery of further 4 Airbus A330-900 in coming years. They stack up on top of another 3 of the type already on order to bring the total to 7 planes.
Once these new planes have joined, Azul will have a 14 aircraft long haul fleet, allowing it to reach more far-flung destinations than ever before.
The current Azul long haul operations an possible uses
Currently Azul uses it’s wide body fleet primary for flights from Florida in the United States and to serve Paris and Lisbon in Europe.
The arrival of the new A330-900s will enable more connections. The airline is likely to start some extra services to the US first in coming years and then expand its network of destinations in Europe.
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