Corsair International (SS, Paris Orly) has said in a press release it will accelerate its fleet renewal and focus exclusively on A330 aircraft going forward.

The French leisure specialist said it will retire the first A330-200 in January 2020. The first B747-400 will be phased out in December 2020. The other two B747s will be retired by May 2021.

The carrier's second active A330-200, F-HCAT (msn 285), is on lease from Carlyle Aviation Partners through the end of June 2022. The carrier has not yet decided the unit's fate but it is likely to be phased out, ch-aviation understands.

The outgoing aircraft will be replaced by five A330-900s. Corsair is planning to take three units on firm order from Airbus in August 2020, February 2021, and April 2021, respectively. It has also announced plans to take another two units from lessors with deliveries scheduled for December 2020 and May 2021.

The airline has also ordered two more A330-300s from lessors with deliveries scheduled for January and April 2020.

As such, Corsair's fleet in May 2021 will comprise of five A330-900s and five A330ceos.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Corsair owns one and leases another A330-200 (which are 19.9 years old on average) and owns all three B747-400s (26.8 years old). The two A330-300s are 6.8 years old on average and are leased one each from MC Aviation Partners and TUI Travel Aviation Finance.

Corsair also announced that it will launch a new route from Paris Orly to New York Newark in September 2020. It will compete on the Paris-New York market with Air France, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Norwegian, United Airlines, La Compagnie, LEVEL, and French Bee. XL Airways France, which has suspended sales of tickets due to financial difficulties, also operates between the two cities.