Austrian Airlines sells three B767s to MDI

Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) has announced it has found a buyer for three of its B767-300(ER)s – Texan aircraft, engines, and parts trader MonoConque Diversified Investments (MDI). The first of the three Boeing widebodies, OE-LAT (msn 25273), is scheduled to ferry to Marana in early March 2021. The 29.5-year-old aircraft is the oldest of Austrian Airlines’ six B767-300(ER)s and has been inactive and parked at Vienna airport since January 9, 2021. The flag carrier said the second B767 to be ferried to the United States will be OE-LAX (msn 27095), which is the second-oldest at 28.3 years of age. The redelivery flight is scheduled for May 2021. The third B767 is OE-LAW (msn 26417) although the airline did not provide an expected retirement date. Both OE-LAX and OE-LAW continue to be active on revenue operations, although with very low utilisation. Austrian Airlines plans to continue operating its other three B767-300(ER)s, which are markedly younger (20.4, 21.6, and 22.2 years old, respectively). It owns all six aircraft, according to the ch-aviation fleets ownership module. The carrier’s widebody fleet also comprises six owned B777-200(ER)s, which it also intends to continue operating. MDI trades in aircraft parts, engines, and whole aircraft. It told ch-aviation that it is evaluating various options concerning the three Austrian B767s’ future. It said it had also assessed the jets’ twelve Pratt & Whitney PW4060 engines as “independent assets”. In 2020, the Texan firm invested in the airline business for the first time, buying Hageland Aviation Services and Frontier Flying Service from bankrupt RavnAir Group. The former was subsequently resold to Ascent Global Logistics, which plans to revive it as Rambler Air.