South African Airways announced Thursday that they are selling a total of nine Airbus A340s including five A340-300s and four A340-600s to accommodate their new fleet. The carrier is also selling 15 spare engines and four auxiliary power units.
Earlier this week South African Airways (SAA) announced that they have put nine Airbus A340s up for sale. The sale includes five A340-300s, four A340-600s, 15 spare engines and four auxiliary power units (APUs). Between 2017-2018 the carrier received five A330-300s and more recently, received four Airbus A350-900s as part of their widebody fleet renewal program. In Thursday’s announcement, SAA’s Acting CEO, Zuks Ramasia said,
“After we received four new Airbus A350-900s, it has become necessary for us to sell our older models to accommodate the new models with superior features such as the quieter cabin, relaxing in-flight environment and more extra legroom seats in Economy Class and lie-flat beds in Business Class. The decision to sell the aircraft has nothing to do with the business rescue process. For some time, we had planned to replace our four-engine aircraft with new generation and more efficient aircraft as part of our fleet renewal programme.
In Thursday’s announcement, Ms. Ramasia continued,
“When we received five A330-300s in late 2017 – early 2018 we had already planned to retire five A340s at that time, but due to the operational fleet undergoing maintenance, the retirement of the aircraft was postponed. Now is the time to sell the aircraft.”
South African Airways’ new A350-900s will begin operating on international routes next week. The tender offer for sale of the nine A340s was original posted on the carrier’s website on January 10, 2020 and offers will be accepted until January 30, 2020 at 11:00AM (South African time). The four-engine A340s previously operated on domestic and international routes, which will now be flown by far more efficient two-engine Airbus A330 and A350-900s.
Source: South African Airways