Azores Airlines (S4, Ponta Delgada) has taken delivery of the first of a total of six A321neos that the carrier plans to dry-lease from Air Lease Corporation. The aircraft, CS-TKF (msn 7972), is powered by CFM International Leap 1A engines. The other five aircraft are expected to be delivered by early 2021 and will help the Portuguese operator to renew its fleet, replacing its two remaining A310-300s in the process. Four of these new A321neo aircraft will be in the LR variant.
The carrier's Chief Commercial Officer Gavin Eccles has told ch-aviation earlier this year that while the initial two A321neo aircraft will be configured with 170 Economy and 16 Business Class seats, the LR aircraft will have four more seats in Economy.
According to the ch-aviation analysis of Azores Airlines schedule data, the airline plans to put its initial aircraft into scheduled service on January 12, with initial routes being Ponta Delgada and Terceira to Boston. From March onwards, when the second aircraft will be delivered, the aircraft will also start operating from both airports to Lisbon as well as between Ponta Delgada and Toronto Pearson.
Azores Airlines currently operates a fleet of two A310-300s, three A320-200s and one A330-200. On certain regional services, it uses Dash 8-400s wet-leased from sister carrier SATA Internacional (Ponta Delgada), while during the summer season it also uses A340-300s wet-leased from Hi Fly (5K, Beja). The airline's network includes transatlantic services to the US and Canada as well as flights to the Portuguese mainland, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Germany.
