Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
BWI International Airlines (BWIA) has settled on a mix of Airbus aircraft including three A340s for its fleet replacement, overturning an earlier announcement that it had selected Boeing types.
President Ed Wegel says that the first two A340s will arrive in a year's time to operate the daily service to London from its Trinidad base. The third aircraft will be operated on other European routes, including Frankfurt and Zurich.
The airline will also take a mix of eight A320/321s to serve routes between the Caribbean and North America, supplemented by the A340s where there is sufficient demand. The exact number and mix of the narrow bodies will be firmed up within the next month says BWIA.
The airline originally announced that it planned to take a Boeing fleet of two 767s and eight 757s leased from International Lease Finance. The change in direction appears to have come, both from stiff lobbying from Airbus and because of the higher capacity of the A340, which BWIA will operate in a 330-seat two-class configuration. At least some of the A340s will be direct-leased from Airbus.
The new aircraft will replace a Lockheed L-1011 and nine McDonnell Douglas MD-83s.
Fresh from its own privatisation, BWIA has also taken a 29% stake in local carrier LIAT, which was privatised on 10 November. This strategic alliance comes as part of a wider strategy to pull together inter-island services within the Caribbean.
Although LIAT will keep its own identity, three other carriers - Cardinal Airlines of Dominica, Carib Aviation of Antigua and Trans Island Air of Barbados - are being over-branded as BWIA Express, to provide feeders for islands not served by the Trinidad long-haul carrier. BWIA says that it is also working with Carib Express, the Barbados-based inter-island carrier part owned by British Airways.
Source: Flight International
