Abu Dhabi: Etihad Airways has placed an order for two additional A330 passenger aircraft, Airbus said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Etihad Airways has signed a firm order for two additional A330-200 passenger aircraft as part of the carrier’s continued growth plans,” the European planemaker stated.
It added that the newly ordered aircraft, like Etihad’s current A330 fleet, will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines.
Airbus further said that Etihad Airways has also converted seven of its previously ordered A320s to the larger and increasingly popular A321 model.
“As our operations and network continue to grow in scale, we feel the A330-200 is the right fleet type to expand with. Our decision to convert seven of our A320s on order into A321s reflects the increasingly strong demand we are seeing across our different routes and we look forward to taking delivery of our first in November 2013,” James Hogan, Etihad Airways President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.
Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, John Leahy, added: “In response to the continuing strong demand, we’re making the A330 better and better, with for example new higher weight variants which offer our customers more payload-range capability with the same high operational reliability.”
The A330 Family, which spans 250 to 300 seats, has attracted more than 1,200 orders and around 900 aircraft are flying with over 90 operators worldwide, according to Airbus.
