Runway Girl
• Mary Kirby
KLM has taken delivery of its first A350-900 in Toulouse, introducing the Airbus widebody into a long-haul fleet that has been dominated by Boeing aircraft. The airline’s business-class seats are nearing certification but will be blocked on the aircraft’s initial flights, limiting the cabin configuration at entry into service.
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KLM has taken delivery of its first A350-900 in Toulouse, introducing the Airbus widebody into a long-haul fleet that has been dominated by Boeing aircraft. The airline’s business-class seats are nearing certification but will be blocked on the aircraft’s initial flights, limiting the cabin configuration at entry into service.
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British Airways is redesigning its Airbus A380 cabins, removing 52 seats to add premium-economy capacity and create what it says will be the world’s largest business-class deck. The investment reflects the airline’s effort to prioritize higher-yield passengers at slot-constrained Heathrow, even as A380 production has ended and new widebodies face delays.
Spain has chosen the Airbus A321neo as the platform for its future Santiago II-SCAPA signals intelligence fleet. The three crewed aircraft are intended to restore the country’s airborne signals intelligence capability and, according to the reports, give Spain one of Europe’s most capable such fleets.
United Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR powered by Pratt & Whitney GTF Advantage engines, marking the first delivery of an aircraft equipped with the upgraded engine variant. The milestone brings the engine into airline service on the A321XLR.
Airbus Corporate Jets research finds increasingly international family offices are relying more heavily on business aviation to support global growth. In the survey, 96% of executives said their use of private aircraft had increased over the previous two years, pointing to a stronger role for aviation in their travel needs.
Airbus Defence and Space has delivered the first batch of next-generation satellites for Eutelsat’s OneWeb low Earth orbit constellation. The batch comprises 32 satellites, marking the start of deliveries for the upgraded spacecraft fleet.
Malaysia Aviation Group, parent of Malaysia Airlines, has signed a sale and purchase agreement with Airbus to acquire Sepang Aircraft Engineering, Airbus’ wholly owned maintenance subsidiary. The deal would bring the MRO business under the airline group’s ownership; the article provides no transaction value or completion timeline.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines is expected to sign an agreement for 10 Airbus aircraft on Oct. 7, comprising four A350-900 widebodies and six A321neos. The planned purchase follows the carrier’s recently announced order for 11 Boeing 787-10s and 737-8s, indicating a major fleet expansion across both manufacturers.
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