Turkey's MNG Airlines turns to A330 P2F freighters

Airbus's December 2020 order book changes revealed

Solinair ponders Air Slovenia launch with Dash 8 fleet

Slovenia's cargo specialist Solinair (SP, Ljubljana) is pondering launching a passenger subsidiary, Air Slovenia (Ljubljana), with a fleet of five DHC-8-Q400 turboprops connecting Ljubljana with key gateways in the region, General Director Janez Jelenc said during a V2 conference in Slovenia discussing the future of the market after the collapse of Adria Airways (JP, Ljubljana).

Jelenc said that the airline also evaluated the CRJ900 and ATR72 as potential aircraft for the start-up but concluded that the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada turboprops offered the best economics. Air Slovenia would initially operate to Lufthansa Group hubs at Brussels National, Frankfurt Int'l, Munich, and Zurich airports, where the airline would hope to establish a commercial parntership with Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l), Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National), and Swiss (LX, Zurich). In addition, Air Slovenia is also evaluating potential flights to Tirana, Amsterdam Schiphol, Skopje, and Pristina.

In order to launch the project, Solinair would...

Slovenia's Solinair in talks about passenger ops

Turkey's MNG Airlines, ULS Airlines Cargo eye A330P2Fs

MNG Airlines (MB, Istanbul Atatürk) is planning to add three converted A330-300(F)s to replace A300-600(F)s, while its local rival ULS Airlines Cargo (GO, Istanbul Atatürk) eyes at least two such aircraft for growth, Cargo Facts has reported.

MNG Airlines hopes to sign orders for conversions of passenger A330-300s into P2F freighters this year.

According to ch-aviation fleets advanced, the airline currently operates a single A330-200(F) and four A300-600R(F)s. The latter units are 26.1 years old on average, although MNG Airlines said they still are "in good condition". The airline still has three A330-200(F)s on order from Airbus but it is unclear if it plans to take deliveries of these.

ULS Airlines Cargo, in turn, operates three A310-300(F)s on behalf of Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul New). The carrier hopes to finalise conversion agreements by the end of 2020 and will use the A330P2Fs alongside the A310(F)s, not for replacement. The carrier's A310(F)s are 27.6 years old on average.