WestJet announced on Wednesday that President and CEO Ed Sims is expected to retire at the end of this year after being with the airline and holding the position for four years. Sims will continue in a senior advisory role with Onex Partners, focusing on aerospace and aviation. With Sims at the reins, the airline managed to maintain its status of being Canada’s second-largest carrier while expanding its route network both domestically and internationally. The carrier also joined the group…
Low-cost carrier Volotea has announced its plans to phase out its remaining nine Boeing 717-200 aircraft, marking the end of the type operating throughout Europe. The Spanish airline, which is headquartered in Asturias Airport in northern Spain, operated a total of 19 717-200s since the airline began operations. The first…
To not mince words about the commercial aviation industry when talking about the last year, but 2020 sucked. The global force for moving passengers was grounded with the rapid spread of COVID-19 as borders closed, demand fell and airlines looked to make the most of the disaster at hand. Months…
On February 25, 1965, the Douglas DC-9 took to the skies, creating a new narrowbody aircraft for the commercial aviation industry to take notice to. Much like the airlines that have utilized the jet, the aircraft itself has gone through various transformations becoming the McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 and MD-90 and eventually…
Hi Fly, the Portuguese charter carrier, has announced its intentions to retire its sole Airbus A380 aircraft by the end of the 2020 calendar year. The carrier has operated the aircraft since July 4, 2018 on a lease from Doric Aviation. The airline has decided to not renew its lease,…
On Tuesday, Emirates officially retired its first A380 jumbo jet. The aircraft, registered as A6-EDB, has been in Emirates’ fleet for 12 years and completed its final flight on Oct. 27. While this retirement is not a direct causality of the COVID-19 pandemic, the once-reverenced "Eighth Wonder" is slowly withdrawing…
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines will operate its final Boeing 777 flight on Oct. 31, the carrier confirmed to AirlineGeeks. After announcing earlier this year that it would retire all of its 777s by the end of 2020, the date is now official. Two flights have been put on the schedule…
Delta Air Lines has retired its final Boeing 737-700 aircraft, sources close to the matter confirmed to AirlineGeeks. Delta had eight 737-700s in its fleet as of Sept. 13 and the final planes were ferried to storage on Sept. 25. Delta’s final 737-700s were registered as N301DQ, N302DQ, N303DQ, N304DQ,…
Delta Air Lines’ Chief Operating Officer Gil West announced his plans to retire from the company. The announcement was made public in an internal memo to employees from CEO Ed Bastian on Aug. 25. Considered the architect of the carrier’s operating performance excellence, West joined Delta in 2008 as the…
The warning signs were there in March when the coronavirus stopped the aviation industry dead in its tracks. The knock-on effects from the global downturn of passenger traffic were already being calculated by airlines across the world, with decisions being made for what life would look like for airlines post-COVID.…
