Uganda Airlines has firmed up its order of two Airbus A330-800s, becoming the second customer of the newest A330neo version.
Uganda Airlines, the national carrier of Uganda, has firmed up its order for two A330-800s, Airbus announced on April 8, 2019. “Uganda Airlines plans to use the A330-800 to build its medium- and long-haul network with the aircraft offering cutting-edge technology along with more efficient operations,” according to Airbus statement.
Uganda Airlines order puts Airbus backlog of A330-800s to a total of 10 planes. Previously, the only customer of the model was Kuwait Airways, which placed its order of 8 aircraft in October 2018.
The A330-800 made its maiden flight in November 2018 and is currently in the middle of flight testing programme. Airbus plans to finish it and obtain A330-800 certification by the end of 2019.
A longer A330neo version, the A330-900, was certified in September 2018 and, after being delivered to the launch customer TAP Air Portugal in November, began operations at the end of 2018.
In Airbus orderbook, this version is doing much better than upcomer -800. So far, it has accumulated 230 orders (as of March 2019), and six planes are already delivered to customers (five for TAP Air Portugal and one for a leasing company). The biggest buyer, AirAsia X Malaysia, is still awaiting deliveries of its 66 planes on order to begin.
The A330neo Family is the new generation A330, built on the previous A330 Family with a promise to reduce fuel consumption by 25% per seat and increase range by up to 1,500 nm. The programme was launched in July 2014.
The A330neo comes in two versions: the A330-800 and A330-900, sharing 99% commonality. Both aircraft are powered by Rolls-Royce’s Trent 7000 engines and features a new wing with an increased span and new A350 XWB-inspired Sharklets.
The A330-900 version accommodates 287 seats in a typical three-class layout or up to 440 for high-density configurations and can provide a range of 7,200 nautical miles. The A330-800, in turn, has a longer range (8,150 nautical miles), but has less seats ‒ 257 passengers in a three-class layout or up to 406 in a high-density configuration