Bucharest-based HiSky Europe has taken delivery of its maiden widebody aircraft, an Airbus A330-200, this Tuesday (19). This is the first A330 registered for a Romanian airline, and the first Airbus widebody for one since state-owned TAROM retired its fleet of A310 in 2016.
The aircraft, registered YR-KID, was received with a water salute in Henri Coandă Airport, from where it is expected to operate.
«After all analysis, the A330-200 turned out to be the best option for long-haul flights, and we are happy that we managed, in a very brief period of time, to bring the aircraft to Bucharest, ready to start flying», stated HiSky’s CEO, Iulian Scorpan, in a press release. The lease of a single A330-200 from Air Lease Corporation was announced in September.
While specific regular destinations for this aircraft have not yet been announced, the focus is in the United States. Last week, HiSky received its Foreign Air Carrier permit in the U.S., which will enable it to operate such flights.
The press release celebrating the new certificate confirmed that the United States should be where the A330-200 will be deployed in the future, although the airline did not disclosing any timeframes.
According to Cirium’s Diio Mi application, Romania and the United States have not been connected nonstop since 2009, when Delta Air Lines halted its flights between New York/JFK and Bucharest. The airline had started its flights to the Romanian capital in 2007.
The last nonstop flight to the U.S. by a Romanian airline was operated by TAROM, with the A310, in 2003. North America was connected to the city through Canada between 2018 and 2019, with seasonal flights from Montreal and Toronto with Air Canada Rouge.
Romania has a challenge in maintaining long-haul flights to North America due to its location. It is too far away from the Northeastern U.S. to allow longer-range narrowbodies to reach Bucharest, which requires widebodies to perform the flights.
At the same time, lower-yielding passengers have several options to reach either destination, with little additional distance. According to the Great Circle Mapper, for instance, a nonstop Bucharest-New York has a length of 7,652km, while a Bucharest-Paris-New York has a length of 7,706km, a difference of only 54km.
HiSky Europe’s A330-200, according to the first press release, will be configured with 39 seats in Business class and 206 in Economy.
While HiSky’s largest office is in Chișinău, Moldova, the company has its own air operator certificate (AOC) in Romania, HiSky Europe, which allows it to operate in and out of the European single market. The latter has bases in Bucharest and Cluj.
Besides the new A330-200, incorporated to the Romanian AOC, the two airlines currently operates an all-Airbus fleet of one A319 registered in Moldova, four A320 and two A321LR, all of which are leased from ALC.
