1. Bangkok Airways has ordered six ATR 72-500s with options for six more. Deliveries begin in June next year. The aircraft will operate on new international routes into Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. The carrier operates eight ATR 72-200/210s and one ATR 42-300.
2. Hamburg International Airlines will lease a Boeing 737-700 from CIT Aerospace in April next year.
3. Aces Columbia signed for two ATR 42-500s with delivery of the first in December and the second in next April.
4. SAS' Finnish subsidiary Air Botnia is to replace its Fokker F28s with five 75-seat BAE Systems Avro RJ85s in a deal worth around around $120 million. Delivery of the first aircraft is set for April 2001.
5. American Airlines has exercised purchase rights for two additional Rolls-Royce Trent-powered Boeing 777-200ERs and four more 737-800s, for delivery in 2002.
6. LanChile has taken delivery of its first of seven Airbus A340-300s which it will use replace Boeing 767-300ERs on services to Europe, North America and the South Pacific.
7. UK charter airline JMC Airlines has decided to replace its two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s next year with two Airbus A330-200s on lease. The two R-R Trent 772-powered aircraft will be delivered in time for its winter season, which begins in October 2001.
8. Ryanair has boosted its Boeing 737-800 order book by three aircraft. The new aircraft will be delivered in May, June and July 2002.
9. Spanair has taken delivery of its first 218-seat A321, which will replace MD-80 aircraft and provide the basis for the airline's growth requirements. In total, Spanair will operate up to 45 A320 family aircraft.
10. TWA has retired its final six Boeing 727s, after operating the trijet for 36 years.
11. Golden Air has acquired two additional Saab 340s from the manufacturer (one 340A and one 340B), and is acquiring two examples from Mandarin Airlines. The deals take the Swedish airline's Saab fleet to 10 aircraft.
Source: Flight International
