Lufthansa to lease in Fokker 100 capacity for Summer 2018 ch-aviation PRO exclusive

Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) has announced plans to further focus on its African network and to withdraw from the Indian market as part of the network realignment. In a press release, the carrier outlined plans to redeploy the A330-200 capacity currently used for a 5x weekly service linking Brussels with Mumbai Int'l. Instead, the carrier wil increase the frequency to Banjul from 4x weekly to daily.

At the same time, Brussels Airlines will also increase capacity to Dakar Blaise Diagne Int'l. It will terminate three weekly flights at the Senegalese gateway instead of continuing on to either Banjul or Conakry, as they do today.

The Mumbai service is the Belgian carrier's only long-haul route to Asia. Brussels Airlines will continue to offer service to Mumbai via its Lufthansa Group sister carriers Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) and Swiss (LX, Zurich).

The carrier will also introduce Kiev Boryspil and Wroclaw as new short-haul destinations and start a cabin refurbishment programme for its fleet of...

Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) says it booked orders for five A320 Family aircraft during the month of August 2018.

According to the European manufacturer, the new business involved three A320ceo for Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) and two A321neo for Air New Zealand (NZ, Auckland Int'l).

These two transactions bring Airbus's net orders for the first eight months of 2018 to 219 aircraft.

During the month of August, Airbus says it delivered a total of 54 aircraft from its A220/A320 single-aisle product lines and widebody A330/A350 XWBs.

Air New Zealand (NZ, Auckland Int'l) also converted two A320neo orders to A321neo with lessor GECAS doing the same for 12 A320neo aircraft leaving Air NZ with a backlog of four A320neo and 11 A321neo and GECAS with 151 A320neo and 37 A321neo left to be delivered.