Air Greenland has put its single widebody A330-200 up for sale ahead of its expected delivery of its new A330-800neo.
What are the details?
If you have a few million to spare, you could pick up a piece of Air Greenland history – its first and only A330-200 aircraft. According to CH-Aviation, the asking price is only $14.63 million, but I’m sure if you are willing to come and pick it up yourself from Greenland you could negotiate!
The aircraft has, for many years, been the main air-bus (pun intended) between Kangerlussuaq and Copenhagen Kastrup. It is configured with 30 business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and 248 in a 3-3-3 configuration at the rear of the plane. The business class seats do not feature lie-flat and are only recliners. The seats have pitches of 54-inch (137 cm) for business and 32 inches (81 cm) in economy.
The aircraft was also used occasionally to fly from other airports in Greenland such as Pituffik. The aircraft is 21.5-years-old and previously flew for Brussels Airlines before transferring to the icy island in the Atlantic.
Why is Air Greenland selling the aircraft?
The aircraft is very old and its time that Air Greenland upgraded to a new aircraft. Their plan is to put this current aircraft on sale and, as soon as its sold, to hire a Hi Fly A330-200 to replace the service. Currently, the newer Hi Fly aircraft is in operation until March 2020 as the older aircraft is in maintenance, so if you want to fly onboard the older Airbus you will have to do so as soon as possible.
Why is Air Greenland buying the Airbus A330-800neo?
The new aircraft that Air Greenland hopes to have delivered in the last quarter of 2021 is an Airbus A330-800neo. Interestingly, the Airbus A330-800 is the perfect aircraft for Air Greenland, which is the spiritual successor and this sale might be the only thing keeping the unpopular A330-800neo in production.
The reason why the A330neo is so good for Air Greenland is because of how short the runways are in Greenland. In fact, Air Greenland approached both Airbus and Boeing for a new widebody aircraft. Boeing offering a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, but the American aircraft proved to be unsuitable for airport conditions in the far north.
The aircraft also already fits the mission profile for Air Greenland and carries around the same number of people, so is an easy choice for the airline.
Air Greenland seems confident that this sale will go ahead (they have not mentioned if there is a specific buyer at this time) and as mentioned has already swapped out the aircraft for maintenance. We look forward to reviewing the new aircraft when it comes.
What do you think of this news? Will you be flying on the new Air Greenland widebody? Let us know in the comments.
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