Day 3 of the Dubai Air Show has been and gone, so it’s time to see what announcements have hit the front pages, as the main interest from the show dies down
Airbus
Ethiopian Airlines continues its dual fleet strategy.
Ethiopian Airlines Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 11 additional Airbus A350-900s to be added to its existing fleet. The latest agreement takes Ethiopian Airlines’ total order book and commitment for the A350 to 33, including four A350-1000s.
Ethiopian Airlines currently operates a fleet of 20 A350-900s and with this commitment, it will confirm its position as Africa’s biggest A350 customer.
In Quotes
Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mr. Mesfin Tasew, said:
“We are excited to place this commitment for 11 Airbus A350-900s. As a customer focused airline, we are particularly excited for this fleet as it offers extra comfort to passengers with its features like the quietest cabin in its class and ambient lighting. We are keen to expand our fleet size, acquiring the latest technology aircraft to offer a convenient and memorable onboard experience to our esteemed passengers.”
Christian Scherer, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International, said:
“Ethiopian Airlines is a great example of how to leverage the exceptional values of the A350 for long-haul travel, playing on the benefits of Ethiopia’s unique geographical position that offers the fastest connections between China and Latin America. We are delighted to further strengthen Ethiopian Airlines fleet, and through this, continue the great relationship we have built up together.”
Pansonic Avionics
Egyptair signs for Astrova
Egyptair has signed for the installation of its Astrova seat-end solution on the airline’s new Airbus A350-900 fleet.With this agreement, Egyptair becomes the first airline in Africa to select Astrova.
The system will be line-fit installed in Egyptair’s A350 Business Class cabins with 19-inch 4K OLED monitors, while 12-inch monitors will be installed in Economy Class. Panasonic Avionics’ connectivity services will be installed throughout the airline’s A350 aircraft.
Passengers will have up to 100 W of direct current power, via USB-C, at their seat – providing the ability to fast charge every current phone and tablet at all phases of flight, and around 90 percent of the world’s laptops.
In Quotes
Hernan Abbes, Vice President of Global Sales, at Panasonic Avionics Corporation, said:
“We’re thrilled to be to be launching Astrova in the African market with our longstanding and high valued customer, Egyptair. Our goal is to revolutionize the seatback experience and enable airlines to engage with their passengers, and we’re confident our solutions will deliver these benefits for Egyptair and its customers.”
Eng. Yehia Zakria CEO & Chairman of EGYPTAIR Holding added
“As an airline, we are always seeking solutions to evolve our passenger experience around the world. Panasonic Avionics draws on decades of experience and innovative solutions, and we are thrilled to use their advanced seatback solutions and offer our customers the latest and greatest technology to enhance their travel experience.”
Lufthansa Systems
Riyadh Air signs Luftunahsa Systems for cloud-based services
Lufthansa Systems and Riyadha have signed a contract to implement an integrated operational suite from Lufthansa Systems including the solutions Lido Flight 4D, NetLine/Ops ++, NetLine/Crew and NetLine/HubControl.
The operational suite runs in Lufthansa Systems’ Global Aviation Cloud.
It comprises of Lido Flight 4D’s advanced technology computes the most efficient routes resulting in substantial savings for the airline while the next-generation operation control system NetLine/Ops ++ helps Riyadh Air to optimize the daily utilization of their flights. NetLine/HubControl allows a fully digitized turnaround and an optimised passenger connection management at the hub.
Furthermore, Riyadh Air will benefit from the new web-based pairing application in NetLine/Crew.
In Quotes
Peter Bellew, Chief Operating Officer at Riyadh Air said:
“At Riyadh Air, it is a key goal to achieve our ambitious sustainability goals and the unique capabilities of Lufthansa Systems’ solutions will help us to maximize fuel and carbon savings using the integrated Lido and NetLine systems. The design can simultaneously drive the most effective and least carbon intense routing with the lowest cost fuel usage. Our aim is to show the wider industry how each member of the Riyadh Air family can digitally track their own carbon footprint while reducing costs. The Lufthansa Systems cloud operations suite will be a key to unlocking digital leadership in aviation sustainability.”
He added:
“As a digitally native airline, we require effective technological solutions that allow us to run an efficient and sustainable business. This agreement with Lufthansa Systems clearly demonstrates our continued progress towards our first flight in 2025 and is a significant building block in our operational readiness.”
A busy show… for Boeing.
The show has been a busy one, with just under 400 orders, memorandum of understanding, letters of intent and all the usual instruments signed, with a lot of the action in the widebody arena.
Boeing’s sales team have managed to hog a lot of the limelight, and even the direction for this show has been wide-bodied aircraft, as opposed to narrowbody, with a lot of the orders looking toward larger aircraft.
For Airbus, it has been progressing with deals that have yet to be announced – with Emirates and Turkish Airlines (as that order has failed to materialise so far).
We’ll see if there’s anything else tomorrow as we head into the embers of this air show.
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