To launch long-haul operations across Europe and China National airline Maldivian has been working to add wide-body jets over the recent year.
On more than two occasions Maldivian has sought interested parties to provide proposal to add Airbus A330s. Most recently the carrier issued for such just last December for one Airbus A330-200.
The Airbus A330 made sense operationally as the airline has always operated the Airbus family jets with one A320 already in operation. However, just today for a complete turn around Maldivian is now seeking to add Boeing 787s.
The proposal request is nearly identical to the Airbus A330 as Maldivian is seeking to add one Boeing B787-8 aircraft on a dry lease basis for a preferred lease period of 6 years.
Boeing is the direct competitor of Airbus and the two plane manufacturers have been dominating the aircraft manufacturing market for years with both companies offering various types of jets for narrow-body operations, wide-body operations, and more.
Boeing 787 first entered service just in 2011 and presently has more than 1,000 aircraft in operation. The Boeing 787-8 typically has a seating capacity of 220 passengers and has a range of 7,355 nautical miles (13,621 km). Boeing currently has 439 orders for Boeing 787-8 with 396 delivered.
Maldivian in all operated two Airbus A320 family jet aircraft since commencing jet operations. However; the carrier did not extend the lease period of the Airbus A321 recently and the current and only remaining Airbus A320s lease period itself will expire soon.
With the addition of a Boeing 787, this could likely be the end of Airbus operations as it would be very costly to operate two different types of jets for the carrier with less number of aircraft.
Boeing offers 737s for narrow-body jet operations and perhaps we may see 737s too being added as well in the future to Maldivian.
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