AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

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jam2k94
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by jam2k94 »

Nice picture
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Abbas Ali
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Abbas Ali »

AirBlue A340 cabin interior photo on following link:

http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 3699_n.jpg

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jameel.ashraf3
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by jameel.ashraf3 »

Arriving within 3 days from now...
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SAH
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by SAH »

Quite a few people have said that A330 would have been a better option for Airblue but that A330s were hard to get in the current market. If so, how was Shaheen Air able to get its A330s?
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Miftikhar1979
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Miftikhar1979 »

Shaheen's A330 are older compare to Airblue A340-300. Plus I like the fact Airblue manage only economy class so they will have more seats than in normal scenario. I think A340 will be profitable and if Airblue somehow does connecting flight to another international destination or just connect through Dubai to final destination England, they will have 100% load. I just hope they get two more (total of 4 wide-bodies) so if one is down it doesn't impact their schedule. Usually small airlines face this challenge and that is why it becomes hard to compete with the giants like Emirates and other.
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Umair »

SAH wrote:Quite a few people have said that A330 would have been a better option for Airblue but that A330s were hard to get in the current market. If so, how was Shaheen Air able to get its A330s?
I agree with you...There are plenty of Airbus A330s available on the market. However I still think that both these Shaheen & Airblue have done exceptionally well in getting these aircrafts. Airblue already had a modern & young Airbus A320 Family Fleet. Though for Shaheen I think Bhoja Air's Crash was an eye-opener as Boeing 737-200's are termed as "Flying Coffins" by most aviation experts.
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Umair »

Also Dubai International Airport was the first one to ban the usage of 737-200 at its airport. Which could be another reason why Shaheen has decided to get rid of its ageing 737-200 Fleet.
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Miftikhar1979 »

I agree Umair, if Dubai had allowed them, they may still be flying them.
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by mac777 »

the first a330-300 was never a hit. its only now that it has become a hit when major airlines are using it- while a332 was an instant hit.
(i ignored its eexistence while growing up with people talking about a340-300)
those a333 from shaheen are quite old and their range remain well below a 340-300

b734 will soon be 20yrs and the big airlines are getting rid of them
how many of their 732 are operaational?
Umair
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Umair »

mac777 wrote:the first a330-300 was never a hit. its only now that it has become a hit when major airlines are using it- while a332 was an instant hit.
(i ignored its existence while growing up with people talking about a340-300)
those a333 from shaheen are quite old and their range remain well below a 340-300

b734 will soon be 20yrs and the big airlines are getting rid of them
how many of their 732 are operaational?
Well around March this year Shaheen had 11-12 B-737-200's operational. However with the arrival of B-737-400's, they are now down to 7 B-737-200's.

The active aircraft's are
1) AP-BIK
2) AP-BIQ
3) AP-BIR
4) AP-BIS
5) AP-BIT
6) AP-BIU
7) AP-BJI

Source: http://www.ch-aviation.ch/portal/aircra ... tal?cha=NL.

Shaheen Air are expected to receive 4 B-737-400's by November 2012 & another 3 to 5 aircraft by January-February 2013. Which means that their entire B-737-200 Fleet will be withdrawn from use by February or March next year.
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Banuthev
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Banuthev »

Abbas Ali wrote:Another photo of AirBlue Airbus A340-313X (TC-JIK) at Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, Turkey, on September 12, 2012.

Image
Click here to see large photo.

Note, older white paint on fuselage middle section and new/fresh white paint where AirBlue titles have been painted on front section of fuselage. The fuselage rear section also seems to have received fresh coat of white paint.

Apparently those areas of fuselage received fresh coat of white paint where in the past this A340 (TC-JIK) sported Turkish Airlines markings as seen in following photo from September 2011.

TC-JIK in Turkish Airlines livery in September 2011.
Image
Click here to see large photo.

Abbas
Glad to hear Air Blue is adding wide-body aircraft , Perhaps these A343s may visit CMB as Sri Lanka does the aircraft maintanance for their fleet.
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by saadm80 »

Have Airblue hired Type Rated Flight Deck Crew for A-340 or A-320 flight deck crew have done a Conversion on A-340, Same goes for Aircraft Engineers?
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by dabi »

When are the planes actually arriving?
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by Moin »

The first A340 is landing in Isb tonight and will be based in Lhe.
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Re: AirBlue to Get Two Airbus A340-300s on Lease from ILFC

Post by raihans »

excellent news. Moin, any info about the flight deck crew operating the delivery flight? Is it airblue crew or ILFC crew?
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