Flora Airways 787-8 (2017-Present Livery)

Happy March!

Today we have the long (not so awaited) 787-8.

As said in the 767-200 post, the 787-8 was decided as the replacement for the 767 in 2017, and they took their first one in 2019. The original order called for 20 orders, though that was bumped up to 30 in January 2020 (before the pandemic). The pandemic did bring a pause to the delivery, delaying their orders for almost a year at some points, but in. February 2021, the 787's began delivery for a second time after a year long hiatus... Currently, out of the 30 ordered aircraft, they have 18, the most recent being delivered mere days ago.

After the pandemic, the plan for the retirement of the 757, 767, and 777 all changed. Originally, the airline's plan was to retire those three aircraft types completely by 2025, all to be replaced by the 787-8 (and possibly the A350). But the pandemic had forced the airline to put these aircraft into an early retirement. Of the thirty five 757's, only ten remain. For the forty five 767's, thirty four remain (as said in the previous post). And out of the thirty 777's, thirteen remain, all of these aircraft now planned to be retired by December of this year... This has put the airline in a scramble for aircraft, as more that two thirds of their fleet is or planned to be in retirement... Due to this, many changes have happened, the biggest of these being the recent order of 15 Airbus A350-900's, the first airbus aircraft in Flora's fleet ever. Alongside the addition of the A350 for long range replacements, the short range game is changing at Flora too. The airline for it's entire life has gone by fine with the 737 model series (owning the 737-600 and -700), but that is also about to change. The airline placed orders for a starter 15 Embraer E190 E2's and E175 E2's, now to supplement the aging fleet of 737's. Another plan to bring in more money from their major losses from the pandemic is to introduce feeder service on the west coast. This can be seen by their order of 10 ATR 72-600 aircraft, recently announced at their twice yearly conference (where they announce year plans and new aircraft... The whole deal)...

So it seems Flora is stepping up their game in the competitive west coast, along with replacing their old and aging fleet of wide body aircraft, the only thing we can do now is wish luck for them, as these new additions were not cheap... But in order to succeed, you must take some gambles....

(More changes to the header. This time it's mostly just the titles being bigger and the color being slightly brighter... Also can I just say that if you read all that, good for you)

Aircraft by Med