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n33d4sp33d_85
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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Mon May 25, 2020 6:14 pm

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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 12:30 am

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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 6:24 am

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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 3:01 pm

Bizare plot of UAE-backed mercenaries further exposed

The New York Times and The Times Of Malta have been reporting on a plot of an alleged United Arab Emirates (UAE) backed plot to send mercenaries and supplies to Libya from Malta. It got our attention when new details emerged in MaltaToday on 26 May 2020.

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has sought to use private military firms in the past as part of his efforts to take the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Two UAE companies supplied ‘Project Opus’ with three SA341 Gazelle and three AS332 Super Puma helicopters, sourced in South Africa. The helicopters were to be armed with 7.62mm medium machine guns and destined for Haftar’s forces, which are supported by the UAE, as well as Russian mercenaries and Egypt.

The six military helicopters were procured from South Africa in June 2019, transported by flatbed trucks to Botswana and subsequently to Benghazi. The Botswana Gazette (news paper) posted on on 29 June 2019 photos on their FaceBook page with the incorrect caption “BDF VIP SUPER PUMA H22 helicopters enroute to SSKIA this morning”. This turned out to be part of road transport of the helicopters. Possibly Angolan Il-76s have been employed to transport them further north via Luanda from Botswana.

The twenty private military contractors were deployed to Benghazi from Amman, Jordan in late June 2019, arriving on board a commercial turboprop cargo plane. When an alleged dispute erupted with Haftar over the quality of the aircraft to be used in the clandestine operation, the deal fell through and the mercenaries scrambled for their boats and fled. Those twenty private military contractors (PMCs) were evacuated from Libya aboard two Malta-leased Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB), linked to the UAE companies, and subsequently arrested on arrival.

Scramble would like to find out the origin of the helicopters involved. We do assess in the meantime Jordan was offering surplus AS332M-1 and used to operate the Aerospatiale Gazelle as well.
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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 3:02 pm

Groupe Dubreuil has reached an agreement with Airbus to defer the delivery of four A350-1000s with one year to 2021 instead of 2020.

Two of the four are destined for Air Caraïbes, which already operates one of the type, and the other two are for French bee.
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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 3:02 pm

LATAM Airlines is going to restructure the airline in order to secure the airline's long-term operations. The goal is to right-size LATAM into the new reality of lower passenger demand and secure new funding from their stakeholders and new investors.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for their entities in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the US. LATAM is also in talks with the governments for support for their entities in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
Over the last few weeks the airline already took some measures to reduce capital expenditure by transferring their order for ten Airbus A350s to new large stakeholder Delta Air Lines.

However, as demand dropped more and especially Brazil is heavily impacted by the Corona-outbreak, more measures are needed. LATAM has said that they will continue to operate as normal during the restructuring of the company.
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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 3:03 pm

Air New Zealand has decided to ground their entire The Boeing Company B777-fleet until at least the end of this year. This means their fourteen B787s will be their long-haul workhorse for the next few months.

The fleet, which is made up by eight B777-200ERs and seven B777-300ERs, is already mainly parked at this moment, with only six of their B777-300ERs flying sometimes.

To reduce future capital expenditure, the airline also decided to defer the delivery of seven Airbus A321neos. The planes will now start to arrive at the earliest in December 2022. Previously the plan was to have deliveries start in January 2022. Air New Zealand already has seven A321neos in the fleet.
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Post by n33d4sp33d_85 » Tue May 26, 2020 3:04 pm

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