Summary
- Air Canada to receive ex-China Southern A320, a part of fleet growth plan. Testing complete, to hitch as C-FDGQ soon.
- Aviator Capital has over 120 aircraft orders through 2028, valued at $2.5 billion leasing to 65+ customers globally.
- Air Canada plans to receive A320s, A220s, A321s, and widebody aircraft like 787-9s in 2024, no more narrowbodies until 2025.
Air Canada is expanding its fleet of A320 aircraft and can likely take delivery of an Ex-China Southern Airbus A320 in the approaching days. The aircraft, owned by Aviator Capitol, is currently in storage at Larnaca International Airport (LCA) in Cyprus.
The aircraft, an 18-year-old A320-200, MSN 2770, was originally operated by China Southern Airways up until December 2023. After spending a month on the bottom in Guangzhou (CAN), the aircraft was flown to LCA on January sixth via a four-hour stop in Dhaka (DAC).
After spending three months on the bottom conducting maintenance work at Cyprus-based Bird Aviation, a component 145 maintenance repair and overhaul facility, before being transferred to Air Canada. The aircraft recently flew again using a test registration on March sixteenth. That flight lasted a little bit over two hours and brought the aircraft to 39’000 ft of altitude.
While the airline adds 4 narrowbody aircraft for 2020, a lot of the airline’s growth is anticipated to be widebody aircraft. In total, Air Canada expects five widebodies to be delivered in 2024, including two 787-9s, one A330-300s, and two 767-300 freighters.
As of its last fleet report, Air Canada won’t expect to take delivery of one other narrowbody until 2025, when it can receive five 737 MAX 8s and 4 A321XLRs. The airline, nevertheless, recently placed an order for the larger 737 MAX 10.
China Southern, for its part, has received three 737 MAX 8s and three A320 Neos to this point in 2024. The last A320-200 neo received was delivered to the airline on February fifth in factory recent condition. That carrier has a fleet of no less than 149 A320s in total.