Max Kingsley-Jones/London
Olympic Airways has followed on the heels of Air Canada in deciding to replace its Boeing 747 "Classics" with Airbus A340s, and will take delivery of the first of up to six -300s in 1998.
The airline, which has signed a contract for two A340-300s, with options for a further two, will receive the first aircraft in 1998, and plans to have six in service by 2000. Olympic is a long-established Airbus A300 operator, will use the 299-seat A340s to replace its four 426-seat 747-200s.
The contract brings total firm orders for the A330/A340 family to 366 and comes in the wake of deals with Virgin Atlantic and Air Canada for the new stretched and extended-range A340 growth models (Flight International 6-12 August, P4). The spate of orders has added new impetus to the entire A340 programme, for which the net orderbook had not grown during the first six months of 1997.
Airbus announced the commercial launch of the very-long-range, 15,400km (8,300nm) 313-seat A340-500 and stretched 378-seat, 13,500km-range A340-600 at the Paris air show in June, but industrial launch of the $2.5 billion programme is conditional on the securing of a "significant" number of orders. The consortium had been aiming to achieve this target in September or October, and has commitments from the two airlines for up to 31 -500/600s.
Virgin, which became an early operator of the A340 in 1993, will be the first to take delivery of the new Rolls-Royce Trent 500-powered A340-600 in 2002.
The airline has some innovative ideas for the interior of the new aircraft, with an intention to install first-class sleeper cabins in the forward lower-deck cargo hold, a bar-type lounge, showers and an exercise area in the aft hold.
Boeing had also been courting Virgin, hoping to entice the airline away from the A340 with its long-range 777-300X model. Virgin is a major Boeing 747 operator, and has held six delivery positions on the 777 for several years.
Meanwhile, the second and third phases of Air Canada's recent A330/A340 order is dependent upon route approval from the Canadian Government. The airline, which is planning orders for two A340-500s and three -600s (plus ten options), wants to add new services from Hong Kong to Toronto.
Source: Flight International
