Adria takes delivery of A319

Adria’s new A319 arrives

Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways took delivery of a 135 seat Airbus A319 yesterday, expanding its fleet to 13 aircraft. The plane, which enters service tonight, will operate on Adria's European routes and longer charter flights, the company said. The new aircraft is on a long term financial lease from the AerCap investment group. It arrived from the Airbus Centre in Hamburg last night and bears the registration S5-AAP. Adria’s A319 will operate its first revenue flights tonight to Istanbul. With another A319 expected to arrive in May, Adria Airways’ CEO, Tadej Tufek, said that this was Adria’s biggest fleet expansion to date. “We now have a more cost efficient fleet which is inline with environmental regulations which are set to come into force in 2012”, Tufek told the Slovenian public broadcaster RTV SLO.

With another A319 on order, the airline is also awaiting the arrival of yet another Bombardier CRJ900. These aircraft will replace the airline’s sole Airbus A320.