Virgin Blue exercised options on 10 737-800 purchase rights worth $678.5 million at list prices. New aircraft will replace existing leased aircraft and are scheduled for delivery in the December 2011-February 2013 period.

Mesa Air Group placed a firm order for 10 CRJ700 NextGen aircraft valued at approximately $334 million at list prices, Bombardier announced yesterday. Two are conversions from previously placed CRJ900 orders. They will be operated for United Airlines. Mesa also placed a conditional order for an 11th CRJ700 NG, which was unveiled last month, along with the CRJ900 and 1000 variants, by the Canadian manufacturer (ATWOnline, June 4). Mesa currently operates 58 CRJ100s/200s, 20 CRJ700s and 38 CRJ900s.

LAN Cargo will introduce two new 777Fs into its fleet during the first quarter of 2009. It also is negotiating for two additional freighters that would be added by 2011. The four will join the airline's nine 767-300Fs

Royal Jordanian took delivery of its third E-195, part of an order for seven of the type placed last year (ATWOnline, March 23, 2006).

Bangkok Airways took delivery of the first of six A319s it has on order. The remaining five will be delivered next year and in 2009.

A little more than one week after doubling its firm 777 order to eight aircraft, TAM announced the signing of an MOU to acquire 22 A350-800/-900 XWBs plus 10 options for delivery in the 2013-18 timeframe. The Brazilian carrier also will exercise four A330 options for delivery in 2010 and 2011. Total catalog value of the 22 A350s and four A330s is approximately $5.4 billion.

SunExpress signed a five-year contract to use the Lido RouteManual from Lufthansa Systems. It also has the option of migrating to the electronic version of the navigation charts, the Lido eRouteManual, during the term of the contract.

US Airways, having completed its deal for 92 new Airbus aircraft (ATWOnline, June 19), now will turn its attention to replacing the fleet of wholly owned regional subsidiary Piedmont Airlines. "A year we ago we announced we were looking at replacement [for the Piedmont fleet] but we redirected our attention to a larger order for the mainline," a US Airways spokesperson told ATWOnline.