Congo Brazzaville firms order for three ARJ21s

China's Air Central set to add first ARJ21 freighter

Air Central (China) (GI, Zhengzhou) has begun proving flights for its first of fifty ARJ21-700(F)s, B-3388 (msn 109), after conversion at the GAMECO facility at Guangzhou earlier this year, Chinese media have reported.

The aircraft was manufactured as an ARJ21-700 in 2018 and subsequently leased to Chengdu Airlines (EU, Chengdu Shuangliu) for which it operated until September 2021, when it was withdrawn from use and ferried to Nanchang for storage, and later to Guangzhou. It is the first Chinese manufactured aircraft to enter the Air Central fleet which presently includes five B737-300(F)s, one B737-400(F), five B737-800(BCF)s, and one B747-400FSCD.

According to ch-aviation fleets advanced data, B-3388 is just the second COMAC conversion. B-3329 (msn 112), also ex-Chengdu Airlines passenger stock, recently underwent conversion and is due to be delivered to YTO Cargo Airlines (YG, Hangzhou) this month.

Air Central (China) was rebranded from Longhao Airlines in 2019 and China Central Longhao Airlines earlier this year. The cargo...

China’s Urumqi, Suparna Airlines to order 60 C919s

Indonesia's TransNusa to begin commercial ARJ21 operations

TransNusa (8B, Kupang) has completed the required 100 hours of proving flights on its first ARJ21-700 and will begin revenue flights on April 18. In doing so, TransNusa will become the first none China-based operator of the aircraft type.

After taking delivery of PK-TJA (msn 186) in late 4Q 2022, TransNusa began the COMAC jet's proving flights in February this year. Indonesia's civil aviation regulations mandate 100 hours of flying before the plane can be introduced into commercial operations. FlightRadar24 ADS-B flight tracking data shows the aircraft primarily operating the proving flights on the Jakarta - Denpasar and Jakarta - Yogyakarta International sectors, with some flights also between Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur International and Jakarta - Johor Bahru. PK-TJA appears to have completed its proving flights on March 16, wrapping up with a 90 minute sector between Denpasar and Jakarta. There was unconfirmed speculation that the ARJ21 will debut on the carrier's new Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur route however TransNusa Managing Director Bayu Sutanto told ch-aviation the first revenue flights will...

Indonesia's TransNusa to expand to int'l ops in early 2Q23

Indonesian carrier TransNusa (8B, Kupang) will launch its first international route in mid-April. It will begin Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta - Kuala Lumpur International flights on April 14, to be followed by a roll-out of scheduled services between Jakarta and other Malaysian airports, including Johor Bahru.

The airline will use its three A320-200s and single A320-200N on the sector and operate the round-trip Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur flights 2x daily. TransNusa group chief Bernard Francis told local media that the service would help meet strong passenger demand on the route. Traffic on the Indonesia-Malaysia country pair leans heavily towards Indonesian nationals who travel to Malaysia for business, tourism, and education reasons.

According to ch-aviation capacities data, seven scheduled passenger carriers already service the route. With the biggest market share is Malaysia Airlines (23.4%), followed by Batik Air Malaysia (21.98%), Indonesia AirAsia (19.48%), AirAsia (12.98%), Batik Air (11.69%), Garuda Indonesia (5.84%), and Citilink (4.64%). In total, the airlines offer almost 39,000 seats a week on the city pair....