Aigle Azur took delivery of its first directly purchased CFM-56-powered new A319, joining its fleet of three A319s, three A320s and four A321s.

AirBridgeCargo Airlines said it took delivery of its sixth 747-400 freighter this week. The Volga-Dnepr scheduled service subsidiary, which now operates nine 747Fs, said the latest -400F is being leased from Air France. ABC earlier this month added its fifth -400F, saying the fleet expansion was necessitated by the delay in delivery of its first new 747-8F that was due to join its fleet this year

Curtiss-Wright said it was selected by Boeing to manufacture leading-edge rotary actuators for the 747-8, with deliveries beginning in January 2011 and extending through December 2012.

ILFC announced yesterday it will sell a portfolio of 53 aircraft with a book value of $2.3 billion to Macquarie Aerospace for $1.99 billion. Completion of the sale is slated to occur over the remainder of the year, subject to closing conditions. The sale will raise the average age of ILFC's fleet of approximately 1,000 jet aircraft from 7.4 years to 7.6 years, it said. According to Standard & Poor's, "This is the first sale of a large aircraft portfolio since the global financial and economic crisis began in late 2008.

Cathay Pacific Airways captain and first officer are being lauded after successfully overcoming apparent erratic power surges in the A330 they were operating and landing at an unusually high speed at Hong Kong International Tuesday afternoon. Problems started for the crew of CX Flight 780 en route to HKG from Surabaya when the aircraft, with 309 passengers and 14 crew aboard, was on descent about 20 min. from Hong Kong. Its two Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines began to behave erratically with significant variations in thrust. When the A330 touched down at 239 kt.--109 kt.