Australian charter airline Alliance is purchasing six Embraer E190 aircraft from leasing company Aercap to remove their engines for use as backups for its existing fleet of E190s.
The airline said the sales would come from exercising a letter of intent (LOI) signed with Aercap in February 2023 for up to 30 aircraft and would also see Alliance sell the E190 airframes to a European operator.
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Alliance’s managing director Scott McMillan explained the unusual decision: “It is important to note that the underlying basis for the Aercap transaction was to provide a ready supply of high-quality GE CF34-10 engines for Alliance’s growing E190 fleet, and this transaction forms an important part of that strategy.”
The first of the engine deliveries is expected later this month and will see the aircraft flown from the US to Europe, where the engines will be removed and sent to Australia and the airframes will remain to be delivered to their new owner.
Alliance’s announcement also revealed it would be selling 13 surplus Rolls-Royce Tay 620/650 engine cores in its possession to another European operator, with deliveries to begin this month.
The company explained the engine cores were either time-expired or unserviceable and were no longer needed by the airline after it acquired serviceable engines for its Fokker 70 and 100 fleet for delivery next year.
The decision to take delivery of the new engines likely represents Alliance’s efforts to balance its fleet expansion, which it admitted would likely be hampered by aircraft delivery delays after lowering its expectations for the year from 17 to 12 aircraft in April.
