The first flight of the new Airbus A330 in October 2017, in France.
Airbus A330 Neos are becoming more popular in East Africa. AFP PHOTO |
PASCAL PAVANI
Airbus A330 Neos are becoming more popular in East Africa, with RwandAir and Uganda Airlines operating the aircraft.
Rwanda’s
national carrier will be taking delivery of two A330-900 Neos next year
for flights to the US and Asia. Uganda has signed a deal for the
delivery of two of the planes.
RwandAir currently
operates two baseline A330s — a -300 and -200 — on rotation to Europe
and Mumbai. The airline has been positioning itself to add New York and
Guangzhou to its route network, making additional aircraft necessary.
The Uganda Airlines project team justified the choice of the A330-800 Neo, for which it is so far the sole customer.
While
defending the carrier’s application for a licence before the Uganda
Civil Aviation Authority’s Air Services Licensing Committee last week,
Uganda Airlines chief executive Ephraim Bagenda was asked to respond to
media reports that had described the aircraft as “unwanted.”
Mr
Bagenda said the A330-800 Neo was only slightly different from the
larger A330-900 Neo and therefore had a high level of commonality with
both the -900 and baseline A330-200.
“It only has a shorter fuselage, otherwise it has the same
engines and avionics as the -900 Neo which a neighbouring airline will
be putting into service next year,” he said.
Analysts
say the -800 Neo has not gained traction in the larger mature markets
because they are driven more by volume than range, which is the major
attraction to the type by operators such as Uganda Airlines and
RwandAir.
Also, many of these operators already have young fleets of the baseline A330, which is still very competitive.
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