This can be a actual head-scratcher…
EgyptAir promoting its Airbus A220 fleet
FlightGlobal experiences that EgyptAir has offered its complete Airbus A220 fleet to plane leasing firm Azorra. These are planes that EgyptAir owns outright, so this isn’t even a case of an airline returning plane to a leasing firm.
For context, EgyptAir has a fleet of 12 A220s, with all jets being the bigger A220-300 variant. The A220 is a completely pleasant plane, each for airways and passengers. The airplane has wonderful economics, and on prime of that, an ideal passenger expertise, due to the 2-3 structure, and spacious cabin. Within the case of EgyptAir, these planes are a median of only a few years outdated.
Curiously, a lot of this fleet has been parked for fairly a while, and solely two of those planes have even been flying in latest weeks. For a minimum of some period of time, the planes had been parked as a result of engine points, however that’s a problem that has now been resolved.
The CEO of Azorra explains that the corporate has “sturdy partnerships with Airbus and Pratt & Whitney,” which facilitated this “inventive transaction” for buying Airbus A220s.
Why would EgyptAir do away with its Airbus A220s?
Clearly it’s uncommon to do away with practically new plane, particularly once you outright personal them. When we now have seen this occur prior to now, it has often been for large physique plane, in conditions the place a airplane supplied an excessive amount of capability for an airline. Nonetheless, that’s undoubtedly not the case at EgyptAir, because the A220 is the service’s smallest mainline jet.
What makes this improvement so weird is that on the November 2023 Dubai Airshow, EgyptAir went on a buying spree. The airline ordered 10 Airbus A350-900s and 10 Boeing 737 MAX 8s. This was an odd transfer by way of fleet commonality, when you think about that previous to this order, the airline had been modernizing its fleet with Boeing 787-9s and Airbus A320neo-family plane.
Additionally throughout the Dubai Airshow, EgyptAir’s CEO expressed his need for the airline to develop, with a plan to function a fleet of 125 plane by 2028. So dumping a number of the most gasoline environment friendly and price efficient plane within the fleet looks as if a extremely odd path to take, when you’re trying to develop.
Whereas EgyptAir hasn’t really offered a motive for this choice, the corporate’s CEO has said that promoting A220s “clears the trail for brand new Airbus large physique plane.”
So it’s anybody’s guess what’s happening right here, however I feel this most definitely comes all the way down to an inefficient authorities owned airline with no imaginative and prescient performing like an inefficient authorities owned airline with no imaginative and prescient. 😉 A couple of ideas:
- A few weeks in the past, Egypt’s authorities referred to as on the nationwide service to restructure
- It virtually looks as if since these planes are outright owned by EgyptAir, this was seen as a straightforward option to increase capital, since you’ll be able to’t increase cash in the identical approach from leased plane
- I think about EgyptAir was capable of get an honest quantity for these plane, given the demand for contemporary jets; I’m curious to see the place they find yourself
Regardless, there’s no logical justification for this improvement, a minimum of when you’re going to attempt to have a cohesive, long run technique. A couple of months in the past, EgyptAir was speaking about the way it needed to develop massively within the coming years. Now airline executives are saying that promoting new slender physique planes will permit the airline to take supply of latest large physique planes…
Backside line
EgyptAir is dumping its Airbus A220 fleet, though these jets are only a few years outdated. The planes are being acquired by an plane leasing agency, and can presumably be flying for different airways within the close to future. This can be a puzzling transfer, when you think about that EgyptAir simply spent billions of {dollars} on new plane orders lately, and on prime of that, the airline is hoping to develop its fleet massively.
What do you make of EgyptAir eliminating its A220s?
