Bain reports that, despite early optimism, air travel has not bounced back as predicted in 2021, therefore operators are likely to continue looking to reduce costs and move cautiously in 2022.
The market shift towards newer generation aircraft, such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, has led to a steep decline of the Airbus A330 value. This has put the rental cost of young A330s, with plenty of life left in them, at well below $300,000 per month (as reported by Ishka insights and analytics report, April 2022). Whilst this creates some obvious issues for the lessors and aircraft owners, it is at least partially offset by greater liquidity and access to a larger market of new opportunities offered by these lease rates.
Airline start up, flypop, has three Airbus A330-300s it plans to utilise for low-cost flights from the UK to the second cities of South Asia, as part of its mission to fulfil a clear market gap. Combined with the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine – which has one of the lowest fuel burn rates – and accompanying TotalCare® package, flypop is able to achieve a reduced cost-per-mile and a light maintenance footprint.
Similarly, Air Serbia is upgrading its current A330 to a newer, financially favourable model, again powered by the Trent 700 and supported by TotalCare®. Meanwhile, Iberia Airlines has retired its A340s and is using its more fuel-efficient A330s and A350s to manage their routes.