TAM took delivery of its fourth A321 this week. Aircraft seats 220 and will operate Porto Alegre-Sao Paulo Guarulhos-Recife.

Royal Jordanian does not plan to ground aircraft or abandon routes owing to the economic meltdown, CEO Samer Majali told ATWOnline at oneworld's 10th anniversary event in Madrid. The carrier will take delivery of new A319s this month and next and will launch Brussels service in April as scheduled. "After several years of high double-digit growth in passengers and an even greater increase in revenue, we are planning for a very modest growth this year," he said. He conceded that "modest" could equte to "zero," which he said was a "positive" considering the market downturn.

Jeppesen and Continental Airlines are working together to define "a multiyear Required Navigation Performance program" for CO under a recently signed letter of intent. "Jeppesen has provided navigation services for Continental for many years and we look forward to working with them on implementation of this technology," VP-Flight Operations Fred Abbott said. The airline is deploying electronic flight bag services from Jeppesen.

LAN Airlines is working on an interim solution to fill the gap until the first of its 26 787s finally arrives, CEO Enrique Cueto told ATWOnline, and now expects the first Dreamliner to come two years late "by the end of 2013."

Boeing sent a notice to all Trent 800-powered 777 operators that both the uncommanded loss of thrust on a Delta Air Lines 777-200ER in November and the dual rollback that led to the British Airways -200ER crash landing at London Heathrow 13 months ago likely were caused by ice in the fuel feed system (ATWOnline, Dec. 19, 2008).

Ryanair Deputy CEO Michael Cawley told reporters yesterday that the LCC is talking with both Boeing and Airbus about placing an order for 300-400 aircraft within the next two years for delivery in 2012-17. It will sell older aircraft to clear some space but eventually is targeting 200 million passengers per year. It transported 57.7 million in 2008 and currently operates 181 737-800s. Cawley said there was no impediment to operating both Boeing and Airbus types; "We're large enough now to run two fleets."

Pratt & Whitney said it completed ground and flight testing of the PurePower PW1000G demonstrator engine, including 27 flights and more than 75 hr. of flight testing on an A340-600 testbed in Toulouse in cooperation with Airbus. "We were able to complete all flight test objectives with flawless engine operation. The Airbus A340 flight test program included engine test evaluations normally conducted for a production engine certification," Pratt VP-Next Generation Product Family Bob Saia said.

Boeing delivered its 77th 777 (also its 19th 777-300ER) to Singapore Airlines on Jan. 30.