Page 38 - World Airnews Magazine November 2020

NEWS

MSN 10,000 DELIVERED

iddle East Airlines has taken
Mdelivery of Airbus A320 Family
aircraft with manufacturer serial number

10,000.
MSN10,000 is the third A321neo to join

the all Airbus MEA fleet, taking the fleet
size to 18 aircraft. MEA received its first

A321neo aircraft earlier in 2020 and will
be taking another six A321neos over the
coming months.
The handover of the aircraft took place

in Toulouse, France with chairman and
director general of MEA Mohamad El-Hout
present.
“We are honoured to receive the state of
the art A321neo with its distinctive serial

number 10,000 co-inciding with the 75th
anniversary of Middle East Airlines and
specially after receiving MSN5,000 back

in 2012. Since we first acquired an A320
Family aircraft in 2003, we have not only

benefited from the outstanding operational light, hope and motivation to surpass our in this complex environment,” said Airbus

efficiency of the aircraft but were also the nation’s difficulties.” chief commercial officer Christian Scherer,

first airline to introduce the wide-body cab- “Airbus is proud to continue building its “Delivering MSN10,000 is a milestone that

in product on a single-aisle aircraft which long-standing partnership with Middle demonstrates the success of the A320 Fam-
has become a trend in the airline industry East Airlines which already operates one ily and we thank our customers globally for

afterwards,” said Hout. of the most modern Airbus fleets in the their confidence in our products.”

“Unfortunately, due to the current world. As an all Airbus operator, MEA The airline’s A321neo is powered by Pratt

situation in Lebanon, this time we will not benefits from the Airbus’ unique fleet & Whitney’s PurePower PW1100G-JM

be able to celebrate the delivery of the commonality between aircraft families and geared turbofan engines and is configured

MSN10,000 in Beirut, as we did with the is now adding the third highly fuel-efficient in a comfortable two-class layout with 28
MSN5,000, but I am sure that in these A321neo to step up the game. I admire the seats in business and 132 seats in economy
challenging circumstances, it is a ray of agility and the resilience of this company class. Q
COMMERCIAL
AIRBUS AND BOEING
regulatory grounding, which prohibited 737 Max, two 747-8 Freighters, one 767-

Boeing from delivering the aircraft. 300F and eight 777s, Cirium data shows.

irbus and Boeing are still sitting Excluding the Max, the airframers Historically, aircraft production rates

Aon large fl eets of produced but hold 199 produced-but-not-delivered have closely mirrored delivery rates,

undelivered commercial jets, reflecting commercial aircraft – a six fewer than at making the figures nearly synonymous,

the continued slow pace of aircraft hand- the end of July. according to Alex Krutz, managing direc-

offs amid what could be called the aero- Airbus’s inventory stood at 144 aircraft tor at aerospace and defence advisory
space industry’s most-severe downturn. on 1 October, down from 166 at the Patriot Industrial Partners.
On 1 October, the companies held 622 end July. The European manufacturer’s But the coronavirus-driven industry

jets that have completed first-flight but undelivered fleet includes 10 A220s, 89 downturn has soured demand for new

have not been delivered, according to A320-family jets, 14 A330s, 26 A350s jets. Additionally, manufacturers have

Cirium fleets data. and five A380s, according to Cirium. said travel restrictions have hindered

The figure is down slightly from July, Boeing’s undelivered fleet on 1 Octo- their ability to hand off new aircraft.

when a Flight Global analysis tallied 628 ber stood at 478 aircraft, up from 462 In August, Airbus delivered 39 jets and
undelivered Airbus and Boeing jets. in July. Boeing handed over 13, according to the

Boeing’s 423-strong fleet of stockpiled The jump largely reflects more undeliv- manufacturers’ most-recent figures. Q

737 Max significantly inflate the tally. ered 787s. Boeing held 44 of those jets on

Boeing stockpiled 737 Max in 2019 when 1 October, up from 31 several months ago. Article courtesy: https://www.

it continued producing the jets amid the The Chicago airframer also has the 423 flightglobal.com/airframers/

World Airnews | November / December 2020
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