International Aero Engines won a deal with Lufthansa to provide its V2500 SelectOne engine to power 20 firm A321s plus options. Contract is valued at $850 million if all options are exercised. Deliveries are scheduled to begin this year. Pratt & Whitney, a partner in IAE, valued its share of the order at more than $283 million if all options are exercised.

Air Dolomiti took delivery of its first of six E-195s yesterday in Brazil. Aircraft is part of an order for 30 E-Jets placed by parent Lufthansa in June 2007 (ATWOnline, Jan. 23). Air Dolomiti aircraft will be configured with 116 seats in a single class with a moveable partition and will be used to link its Italian network to Munich.

ATR booked orders for 42 new aircraft and options for another 14 in 2008, a significant drop from the prior year's 113 but higher than insiders anticipated at the end of June, when it had signed deals for just eight new planes.

Lufthansa will take delivery of the first of 30 E-195s next week. The first six aircraft will fly for its Air Dolomiti subsidiary, with the remainder set for CityLine. It remains unclear whether Swiss International Air Lines will build its future regional fleet around the Embraer family. Swiss CEO Christoph Franz told ATWOnline that no decision has been made regarding regional aircraft, although LX already has one Embraer simulator in Zurich that it leases out to third-party customers.

National Transportation Safety Board said an examination of the right engine of the US Airways A320-200 that ditched safely in New York City's Hudson River last week "revealed evidence of soft body impact damage." Three variable guide vanes were fractured and two missing altogether along with the CFM56-5B4/P's electronic control unit. "Numerous internal components. . .were significantly damaged," NTSB said, and "what appears to be organic material" was found in the engine and on the wings and fuselage.

Qantas retired the last of its six 747-300s. The airline operated the aircraft mainly on regional international and domestic transcontinental routes in recent years. QF was forced to retain the -300s for longer than desired because of the late delivery of its A380s. The aircraft have been replaced by A330s.

China took another step in its effort to manufacture a large commercial passenger aircraft with AVIC's launch of its commercial engine company in Shanghai on Jan. 18. AVIC President Lin Zuoming said the new venture is expected to be responsible for producing engines for a domestically produced150-seat commercial aircraft dubbed the "trunk liner" (ATWOnline, Nov. 5, 2008).

Rockwell Collins won a deal with Hainan Airlines to provide communication, navigation and surveillance avionics for 13 A320s. Products include RC's MultiScan Hazard Detection System, GLU-920 MMR, ADF-900, DME-900, HFS-900D Data Radio, CPL-920D Coupling Unit, VHF-920 transceiver and VOR-900 receiver. Deliveries will begin in 2010.