Corruption Costs: Sri Lankan Airlines Demands 4 Free Airbus A330-900s & More In Compensation

bdcardinal said:
Aren't there AA or UAL A330s in boneyards already?
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Neither airline flew that airplane. AA and UAL flew the 320, not the 330.

The 330 is a twin engine widebody - It’s been around for over 30 years and the current offering is the A330 NEO with better engines than the 1992 version had.

The old 330s are heading for the boneyard because of age and the better fuel efficiency of the NEO.

DAL flies the 330.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A330
 
Not to be pedantic, but AA did operate the A330 for some years, since these aircraft came along as part of the merger with US Air. We flew on one of these PHL-SJU and return in December 2019.
They were all retired in the pandemonium of 2020. along with every 757 and 767 the airline had in service.
 
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Astro14 said:
Neither airline flew that airplane. AA and UAL flew the 320, not the 330.

The 330 is a twin engine widebody - It’s been around for over 30 years and the current offering is the A330 NEO with better engines than the 1992 version had.

The old 330s are heading for the boneyard because of age and the better fuel efficiency of the NEO.

DAL flies the 330.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A330
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AA flew the 330s through 2020. AA aquired the 330s through there buyout from US Air (Doug Parker purchased the 330s). AA retired the 330s with COVID.

I flew the AA 330s numerous times. Nice aircraft.

The 330s Sri Lanka signed up for I assume are the updated version, I believe with numerous composite updates.
 
GON said:
AA flew the 330s through 2020. AA aquired the 330s through there buyout from US Air (Doug Parker purchased the 330s). AA retired the 330s with COVID.

I flew the AA 330s numerous times. Nice aircraft.

The 330s Sri Lanka signed up for I assume are the updated version, I believe with numerous composite updates.
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Not sure what this means - have been on A330’s with Lufthansa and other airlines … 🤦‍♂️
 
GON said:
AA flew the 330s through 2020. AA aquired the 330s through there buyout from US Air (Doug Parker purchased the 330s). AA retired the 330s with COVID.

I flew the AA 330s numerous times. Nice aircraft.

The 330s Sri Lanka signed up for I assume are the updated version, I believe with numerous composite updates.
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Oh, OK. Didn’t know they even had them, but it makes sense. They were left over from previous mergers.
 
wwillson said:
The US has the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If an American company got caught paying a kickback, someone at the American company would likely go to jail.
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That is why big American companies often do not sell direct in these sorts of places. Bribes are part of the culture. So they sell to a dealer or distributor in the country. The 3rd party pays the bribe. Don’t ask don’t tell. Everyone knows it happens.
 
The only A330s that I’ve been on were Lufthansa, and they were miserable and cramped, also, they were slow. A bit of a dog really
 
SC Maintenance said:
That is why big American companies often do not sell direct in these sorts of places. Bribes are part of the culture. So they sell to a dealer or distributor in the country. The 3rd party pays the bribe. Don’t ask don’t tell. Everyone knows it happens.
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If you look at the list I posted - plenty non American co’s
Several displaced from the top 10 were not US either …
 
We operate the A330-300.

It has great performance, lots of power, big wing and cruises at .82.

The B777 is the dog in our fleet ( small wing, can’t get up high, but it’s fast ).

The A340 was the dog but we got rid of them years ago. A340-500 was a powerhouse , but we only had of few of those models.
 
fdcg27 said:
Not to be pedantic, but AA did operate the A330 for some years, since these aircraft came along as part of the merger with US Air. We flew on one of these PHL-SJU and return in December 2019.
They were all retired in the pandemonium of 2020. along with every 757 and 767 the airline had in service.
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That was what made me think of it. Someone posted one of them on the plane spotting subreddit.
 
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GON said:
AA flew the 330s through 2020. AA aquired the 330s through there buyout from US Air (Doug Parker purchased the 330s). AA retired the 330s with COVID.

I flew the AA 330s numerous times. Nice aircraft.

The 330s Sri Lanka signed up for I assume are the updated version, I believe with numerous composite updates.
Click to expand...
More like US Air took over AA while it was mired in a too late Chapter 11 proceeding.
US Air management ended up running the merged entity.
US Air also had two Chapter 11 reorganizations in its past and had really been taken over by America West in 2005.
In the case of AA, two major mistakes were it's having delayed its Chapter 11 filing too long and having retained the MD-80 as a backbone of its domestic fleet for too long as well. AA had 372 of these in service at fleet peak and moved to replace them later than they should have done.
 
fdcg27 said:
More like US Air took over AA while it was mired in a too late Chapter 11 proceeding.
US Air management ended up running the merged entity.
US Air also had two Chapter 11 reorganizations in its past and had really been taken over by America West in 2005.
In the case of AA, two major mistakes were it's having delayed its Chapter 11 filing too long and having retained the MD-80 as a backbone of its domestic fleet for too long as well. AA had 372 of these in service at fleet peak and moved to replace them later than they should have done.
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Yes, absouletly. Doug Parker orchastrated the buyout of AA, as CEO of US Air. US Air, the very ugly bride nobody wanted, married the handsome prince. Doug made over $100 million, that he converted to cash, in under five years after the merger. Doug Parker went from a reported net worth of high six figures just before the merger, to a net worth IN CASH/ NOT STOCK of very low nine figures.

Of note American Airlines is a absolute mess today. AA no longer can compete with DL or UA, has zero international strategy, yet has the highest debt of any major US carrier. It is reported AA pays twice as much monthly in interest payments than UA or DL.

On the Airbus note, US Air was essentially this first meaninful operator of Airbus narrow body aircraft in the US. Boeing and McDonald Douglas would not sell/ lease aircraft to US Air because these two manufacturers had zero confidence in US Air finances (rightly so). Airbus used US Air as a opportunity to break into the U.S. passenger narrow body aircraft market. No different to how Chrysler/ Dodge marketed new vehicles to people who had a long history of not being able to make loan payments. Toyota/ Honda wouldn't market these customers, Chrysler/ Dodge stepped right in.
 
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United and Northwest were also early adopters of Airbus aircraft, with United choosing the single aisle Airbus over the 737 variants Boeing was pitching. This led Boeing to develop the 737NG which was competitive with the A320 and A319 as well as the then not so great A321.
Northwest was an early adopter as well and there are Airbus single aisle and wide body aircraft in Delta's fleet with the suffix "NW" on there registrations to this day.
Of course, the first US operator of any Airbus was Eastern with the A300. Airbus was desperate at the time to break into the US market so they made Eastern an offer they couldn't refuse.
AA later operated a fleet of A300s and they had nothing good to say about them.
 
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