GECAS announced Friday that it reached agreement with Emirates on the purchase/leaseback of eight GE90-115B engines. EK Senior VP-Corporate Treasury Brian Jeffery noted that the deal is the carrier's "first engine sale and leaseback transaction and is important for Emirates in that it gives us a great deal of operational flexibility for a significant part of our engine fleet." GECAS also reached a sale/leaseback agreement with Air Berlin covering four CFM56-powered A320-200s scheduled for delivery this year.

Lufthansa confirmed it will take delivery of its first A380 on May 19 and conduct a series of trial flights for pilot training across 13 German airports plus Zurich and Vienna from May 31 through June 3. The aircraft's first "passenger" flight will occur on June 6 to transport the German soccer tram to Johannesburg for the World Cup tournament in South Africa. The carrier has not yet released a scheduled service route network for the A380. It will receive three additional A380s this year and four more next year.

Embraer delivered two 76-seat E-170s worth $66.8 million at list price to Libyan aviation service provider Petro Air at the end of March. Deal includes purchase rights to acquire two E-190s, which could bring the total contract value to $146.8 million if all purchase rights are confirmed, it said.

The A330-200 freighter has received EASA Type Certification, Airbus said Friday, noting that certification was achieved for a payload capability of 70 tonnes, 1 tonne more than originally expected.

Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems yesterday announced it successfully completed ETOPS testing of its APS5000 APU for the 787. To date, the APS5000 APU has logged 10,000 APU operating hr. and successfully completed 24,000 starts in its lab- and flight-test program.

AirBridgeCargo Airlines added a fifth 747-400F, a move it said was necessitated by the delay in delivery of its first new 747-8F that was due to join its fleet this year. Boeing now is forecasting delivery of ABC's first -8F, one of five it has on order, in February 2011. "By the end of 2009, we could clearly see that there are some markets in the world, such as Shanghai, that require increased aircraft capacity," ABC Executive President Tatyana Arslanova said.

Hong Kong Airlines finalized its firm order for six A330-200s powered by PW4170 Advantage 70 engines. The carrier signed an MOU with Airbus to purchase the aircraft at the Singapore Airshow (ATWOnline, Feb. 8). It now has a total of 23 A330s on order.

Boeing said yesterday that all test requirements were "successfully met" during the 787's ultimate load wing and fuselage bending test.