Surinam Airways (PY, Paramaribo International) took delivery of its first in-house widebody aircraft, and second overall, namely A340-300 F-WTAJ (msn 921).
The 14.9-year-old aircraft was ferried directly from maintenance at Amman Queen Alia to Paramaribo International on March 13, 2023. The aircraft is leased from V2 Aviation and will be re-registered as PZ-TCW. Surinam Airways expects to induct it into service on its only transatlantic service to Amsterdam Schiphol in May, once it is certified by the local regulator. The aircraft is configured for up to 32 passengers in business class and 225 in economy.
The A340 has been leased for just eight months. Until its induction, Surinam Airways will continue wet-leasing A330-200 9H-PAX (msn 1161) from Airhub Airlines for its Amsterdam route.
The ch-aviation fleets history module shows that the carrier operated the type between 2009 and 2019. Having retired PZ-TCR (msn 242) in late 2019 with a debt to the lessor, it replaced it with a B777-200ER. However, the Boeing aircraft was plagued by maintenance issues and the lack of ETOPS certification, which forced the carrier to resort to wet-leasing widebody capacity. The B777 entered into regular service in late 2020 but was permanently grounded for maintenance after just a few weeks, and then returned to the lessor. Since then, Surinam Airways has not had a widebody aircraft in its fleet. Between June 2021 and early 2023, the financially troubled airline did not have any in-house aircraft in its fleet. It currently operates a single B737-800 delivered in January 2023.
