Start-up carrier Air Antwerp has received its first aircraft, a Fokker 50, painted in the operator's colour scheme. Air Antwerp has revealed that the turboprop is a 1990 airframe (OO-VLS) originally delivered to Lufthansa CityLine. It was subsequently operated by carriers including Air Nostrum and VLM Airlines, before being acquired by a company identified as Largus Aviation by Cirium's Fleets Analyzer. The Fokker 50 was flown from Malmo to Antwerp on 27 July, where the carrier says it will use the aircraft in training exercises. Air Antwerp's livery features red and maroon stripes on a white fuselage, with a similarly-coloured logo on the vertical fin resembling a hand.

Source: FlightGlobal

The European Commission has approved the merge of Air Nostrum of Spain and CityJet of Ireland. The EC issued this statement:The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the creation of a joint venture between Fortress Investment Group, of the US, and Air Investment Valencia, of Spain. It will combine the activities of CityJet of Ireland and of Air Nostrum of Spain. The activities of CityJet and Air Nostrum overlap in the provision of wet-leasing services to airlines and charter flights. The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns, because the companies have moderate market shares, a sufficient number of competitors remains on the market and the barriers to entry are low. The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure. CityJet employs 1,250 people across 9 European countries and operates an extensive regional network of services under wet lease contracts with Air France, Brussels Airlines and SAS with a fleet of over 40 aircraft based in nine locations across Europe. This fleet includes 22 new Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets acquired specifically for wet lease services. The two airlines are coincidentally of very similar age, having been founded in 1993 (CityJet) and 1994 (Air Nostrum), both now being close to their 25th year of operation.

Source: World Airline News

Southwest Airlines executives used much of the company's second quarter earnings call to outline how the Boeing 737 Max grounding has affected its operations, finances and fleet plan. Assuming regulators approve the 737 Max to fly in November, Southwest aims to have at least 30 of the aircraft operating by 6 January, airline executives said on the 25 July call. The Dallas-based carrier pulled 34 737 Max from service following the worldwide grounding in March, prompting it to cancel tens of thousands of flights and rack up $175 million in related costs in the second quarter. On 25 July Southwest announced it removed 737 Max flights from another two months of flight schedules, pushing to 6 January the date on which Southwest expects the aircraft will be airborne again. “Assuming regulatory approval to return the Max to service by early November, our baseline plan would be to control the process so we could provide the network at least 30 Max aircraft… by January 6," Southwest chief operating officer Mike Van de Ven says. "Then we would ramp up from there in a controlled fashion depending on the delivery schedules.” Southwest concedes the timeline remains uncertain, noting the process for approving the 737 Max rests in the hands of regulators.

Source: FlightGlobal