Huh: EgyptAir Dumps Entire Airbus A220 Fleet

HOSTED BY: 1 AIR TRAVEL

This is a real head-scratcher…

EgyptAir selling its Airbus A220 fleet

FlightGlobal reports that EgyptAir has sold its entire Airbus A220 fleet to aircraft leasing company Azorra. These are planes that EgyptAir owns outright, so this isn’t even a case of an airline returning aircraft to a leasing company.

For context, EgyptAir has a fleet of 12 A220s, with all jets being the larger A220-300 variant. The A220 is an absolutely delightful aircraft, both for airlines and passengers. The plane has amazing economics, and on top of that, a great passenger experience, thanks to the 2-3 layout, and spacious cabin. In the case of EgyptAir, these planes are an average of just a few years old.

Interestingly, much of this fleet has been parked for quite some time, and only two of these planes have even been flying in recent weeks. For at least some amount of time, the planes were parked due to engine issues, but that’s an issue that has now been resolved.

The CEO of Azorra explains that the company has “strong partnerships with Airbus and Pratt & Whitney,” which facilitated this “creative transaction” for acquiring Airbus A220s.

Why would EgyptAir get rid of its Airbus A220s?

Obviously it’s unusual to get rid of nearly new aircraft, especially when you outright own them. When we have seen this happen in the past, it has usually been for wide body aircraft, in situations where a plane offered too much capacity for an airline. However, that’s definitely not the case at EgyptAir, as the A220 is the carrier’s smallest mainline jet.

What makes this development so bizarre is that at the November 2023 Dubai Airshow, EgyptAir went on a shopping spree. The airline ordered 10 Airbus A350-900s and 10 Boeing 737 MAX 8s. This was an odd move in terms of fleet commonality, when you consider that prior to this order, the airline had been modernizing its fleet with Boeing 787-9s and Airbus A320neo-family aircraft.

Also during the Dubai Airshow, EgyptAir’s CEO expressed his desire for the airline to grow, with a plan to operate a fleet of 125 aircraft by 2028. So dumping some of the most fuel efficient and cost effective aircraft in the fleet seems like a really odd direction to take, if you’re looking to grow.

While EgyptAir hasn’t actually provided a reason for this decision, the company’s CEO has stated that selling A220s “clears the path for new Airbus wide body aircraft.”

So it’s anyone’s guess what’s going on here, but I think this most likely comes down to an inefficient government owned airline without a vision acting like an inefficient government owned airline without a vision. 😉 A few thoughts:

Regardless, there’s no logical justification for this development, at least if you’re going to try to have a cohesive, long term strategy. A few months ago, EgyptAir was talking about how it wanted to grow massively in the coming years. Now airline executives are saying that selling new narrow body planes will allow the airline to take delivery of new wide body planes…

Bottom line

EgyptAir is dumping its Airbus A220 fleet, even though these jets are just a few years old. The planes are being acquired by an aircraft leasing firm, and will presumably be flying for other airlines in the near future. This is a puzzling move, when you consider that EgyptAir just spent billions of dollars on new aircraft orders recently, and on top of that, the airline is hoping to grow its fleet massively.

What do you make of EgyptAir getting rid of its A220s?