Air France pilots okay Boost plans, cabin crew opposed

KLM takes first E195-E2, Air France to add A220 in 3Q21

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol) took delivery of its first E195-E2 on February 23 kicking off the Air France-KLM group's small jet fleet renewal drive. Sister carrier Air France (AF, Paris CDG) is due to take its first A220-300 during the third quarter of this year.

KLM's first new-generation Embraer regional jet, PH-NXA (msn 19020045), was formally handed over at the manufacturer's site at Sao Jose dos Campos airport, although it has yet to be ferried to Europe. The aircraft is dry-leased from ICBC Financial Leasing and will be operated by KLM cityhopper (WA, Amsterdam Schiphol), a regional production carrier owned by KLM. The Dutch flag carrier expects to take a total of twenty-five E195-E2s, including ten dry-leased from ICBC and fifteen from Aircastle. It has options for a further ten units.

KLM's E195-E2s will seat up to 132 passengers. The carrier's smallest mainline aircraft, the B737-700, seats up to 142 passengers.

KLM cityhopper's fleet comprises seventeen E175s and thirty-two...

Spain's Volotea to add 15-19 A320s in 2021

Volotea (V7, Asturias) has announced it will add at least fifteen A320-200s in 2021, and perhaps four more depending on the summer season demand.

The Spanish carrier recently retired all 14 of its remaining B717-200s (five aircraft of the type were retired between 2016 and 2019) and will now replace them with the larger but more cost-effective Airbus narrowbodies.

"We are very proud to move towards a 100% Airbus fleet. As a European company, we are very keen to count on Airbus as our fleet partner long-term. We will continue growing on our strategy of connecting mid and small European cities, with a more modern and competitive aircraft type, the Airbus A320, that has 20-25% lower operational costs than the B717s it replaces," Founder and Chief Executive Carlos Muñoz said.

The airline said it had already sourced the first fifteen A320s, but did not reveal their identity. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, its first five aircraft will be EC-MBK (msn 2658), EC-NOL (msn 2740), EC-NNZ (msn 2616), EC-NNY...

Spain's AlbaStar to run Italy-West Africa flights

Air Côte d'Ivoire takes delivery of maiden A320neo

Air Côte d'Ivoire (HF, Abidjan) took delivery of its first A320-200N on February 18, 2021, after TU-TSX (msn 10197) was ferried directly from Toulouse Blagnac to Abidjan.

The jet is powered by CFM International LEAP 1-A engines and features 148 seats including 16 in business class and 132 in economy.

The majority-state-owned carrier will use the A320neo on its regional network connecting Abidjan with destinations in Senegal (Dakar Blaise Diagne Int'l), Gabon (Libreville), and Cameroon (Yaoundé Nsimalen and Douala). Going forward, it will also deploy the aircraft to South Africa. Its current route to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo is operated via Luanda or Kinshasa N'Djili, the ch-aviation schedules module shows.

Air Côte d'Ivoire, which is 11%-owned by Air France, currently operates three A319-100s, two A320-200s, and four DHC-8-Q400s. Besides the newly delivered A320neo, it also has two A319-100Ns on firm order from Airbus.

Last week, the airline reported turnover of XOF48 billion...