CAV makes stopover at Boeing sales office...

[Guest Flycav]

Canadian Airlines Virtual announces new aircraft orderDecember 13, 2009TORONTO -- Canadian Airlines Virtual announced today that they are making some major changes in their narrowbody lineup. The airline has been slowly replacing their aging Boeing 737-200 aircraft with newer Next Generation 737's. CAV now has 26 Boeing 737-700's, with another 10 scheduled for delivery starting this month. The airline also has four 737-600's based out of it's Vancouver hub, and has been using the 737-200's mainly as a support aircraft.Today, CAV management announced that the 737-200, albeit a very useful aircraft, has become too expensive to operate with rising oil prices, and the airline was now officially downsizing their large fleet of 737-200's. With the additional 10 737-700's arriving, the need for the 737-200's has become redundant. While the airline's fleet of NG's is not as large as the -200 fleet, quite a few of the older 737's were in storage or were being used for parts.In addition, CAV also operates 25 Airbus A320's, 14 of them being owned, and 11 were leased to bolster capacity on domestic routes. However, the A320's are also in need of replacement- the A320's that CAV owns are almost 20 years old, and the other leased models are newer, but are almost 15 years old. CAV management announced today that these aircraft were to be scheduled for replacement immediately, and the airline has secured dry lease agreements for six Boeing 737-800 aircraft. These aircraft are available almost immediately, and will be flown to CAV's Toronto hub in approximately one to two weeks. Beyond saying the words "dry lease", the executives did not comment on the financial terms of the leases. As these aircraft begin to arrive, 6 of the 11 leased Airbus A320's will be returned to the lessor. Pilots already trained on the 737-600's and -700's are already being given refresher courses on the 737-800. Because the aircraft are all in the same series, no re-certification is required.The obvious question to the CAV management team was "what about the rest of your A320 fleet?" The executive team then had reporters open the second part of the press package that was handed out. Inside was a copy of a purchase finance agreement between Canadian Airlines Virtual and Boeing. The executives then said, "as you can see, we have placed an order with Boeing for 30 brand new Next Generation 737's. This order is to directly replace our Airbus A320's, and the six leased 737's are to reduce fuel and maintenance costs until these new aircraft arrive." The order is for twenty Boeing 737-800's, and ten 737-900ER's. All 30 aircraft will be equipped with blended winglets, and the order also includes 15 option slots for any aircraft in the 737NG series. According to statements issued by Canadian Airlines Virtual, the remaining 5 leased A320's will be returned as the brand new 737-800's begin to arrive, on a one-to-one replacement basis. They will then continue with selling the 14 remaining Airbus narrowbody jets, and the six leased 737-800's will be returned sometime during the replacement process. Financial terms of the purchase agreement were not disclosed, but at list prices, the deal could be worth up to $75 Million USD per aircraft.Please note that Canadian Airlines Virtual and this release are fictional and are intended only for flight simulation purposes. The agreements mentioned above are mentioned solely for fictional purposes, and are not legally binding whatsoever. The images included above of the Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft were retrieved from Boeing's media website in accordance with the Boeing Terms of Use. The images and all trademarks related to them are property of the Boeing Company. No copyright infringement is intended.