Central European low fares carrier SkyEurope has taken delivery of its first Boeing Next Generation 737s, destined to feed the carrier's expansion plans.
The wingletted 737-700 aircraft (OM-NGA), pictured below in new livery leaving the airframer's facilities in Seattle, is the first of 16 firm orders (with 16 options) the airline placed in May last year. Of the 16 firm orders, 12 will be leased from GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS), with six coming from the lessor's current order book, enabling them all to be delivered during this year and next. The remaining 16 aircraft would be delivered to SkyEurope until the end of 2010. The aircraft will be used on expanding the carrier’s network around the postcommunist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
The airline says: "With the introduction of the Next Generation aircraft, SkyEurope has upgraded its branding and created a new livery design."
SkyEurope currently operates a network of 65 routes to 37 destinations with a fleet of 12 mixed variant 737s. The airline has bases Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Krakow and Warsaw in Poland; and from last month in Prague.
Two of the new 149-seater -700s will be based in the Czech capital from where seven new routes will operate to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Milan-Bergamo, Naples, Nice, Paris-Orly and Rome Fiumicino from April.
The carrier saw passenger figures grow by 83% in the year to February, with 1.96 million passengers carried. The carrier hit a load factor of 77.1%, up 4.1 percentage points on the 12 month period a year previously.
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All photos courtesy of SkyEurope |
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Source: Flight International
