Air China plans to order 40 Airbus aircraft in the next five years to support its European expansion, President Li Jiaxiang revealed yesterday at the EU-China Business Summit in Beijing.

Bombardier Aerospace reported EBIT of $122 million for the fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 31, nearly triple the $43 million earned during the same period a year ago. Revenue was up 21% to $2.3 billion due primarily to higher manufacturing revenues for business and regional aircraft and higher service revenues. The company received 124 net orders during the three months, up 30.5% from 95 in the year-ago period. Of that number, 112 were business aircraft and 12 were regional transports including 10 Q400s. As of Oct. 31, the firm order backlog was worth a record $19.6 billion.

Hawaiian Airlines yesterday announced the choice of Airbus aircraft for its widebody fleet renewal, saying it will replace its 18 767-300s and -300ERs with up to 24 new planes comprising six firm A330-200s and six firm A350 XWB-800s plus six purchase rights for each type.

TAP Portugal this week took delivery of its first new A330-200. Aircraft is powered by CF6-80s, will seat 268 in two classes and will be TAP's eighth of the type.

Skyservice Airlines introduced a blended winglet-equipped 757, which it claimed is the first such aircraft operating in Canada. It has a fleet of 21 aircraft comprising A319s, A320s, A330s and 757s.

TAM took delivery of a second A340-500 last week. Aircraft is configured with 42 business class seats and 225 in economy. TAM now operates 15 A319s, 66 A320s, three A321s, 10 A330s, two A340s, 11 F100s and three MD-11s. It expects to return five F100s and take delivery of three A320s and two A330s before year end. Separately, TAM will add six weekly frequencies to its daily services from Buenos Aires to Salvador (with A320s) and Florianopolis (with A319s) Dec. 15-March 2.

SAS Group is offering all of its 27 Q400 aircraft for sale. "There is big interest from airlines all over the world. To sell the Q400s will be not a big problem for us," an SAS spokesperson told ATWOnline while refusing to divulge the names of potential customers. According to the company's interim flight schedule introduced when it grounded its Q400s (ATWOnline, Oct. 30), 90% of all SAS Denmark flights are being operated and the full schedule should be available again by year end.

Airbus's Power8 restructuring program as originally conceived no longer is sufficient owing to the US dollar's decline and the manufacturer now needs to take significant measures to rescue itself from a "life-threatening" situation, CEO Tom Enders and parent EADS CEO Louis Gallois said in a series of recent public comments.