Italy’s Neos plans scheduled US flights

Neos (NO, Milan Malpensa) has applied for exemption authority to amend its US Foreign Air Carrier permit to conduct foreign scheduled flights ferrying persons, property, and mail. Its 2008 permit only covers chartered flight operations. In its application to the US Department of Transportation dated March 5, 2021, Neos requests the DOT to act expeditiously to grant it scheduled exemption authority for two years or until it issues the amended foreign air carrier permit. Neos intends to start marketing the flights as soon as possible and, as such, will poll its application and will advise the DOT of the results. According to supporting documents, Neos currently has 12 aircraft on its existing Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC), including six B737-800s and six B787-9. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced data, Neos leases six B737-800s from Macquarie AirFinance, Seraph Aviation Group, and GECAS respectively, while it leases five B787-9s from AerCap and one from Air Lease Corporation. The airline currently only serves Colombo Int’l (Sri Lanka), Dakar Blaise Diagne Int’l (Senegal), and Nanjing (China) out of its Malpensa base on a scheduled basis. It plans to ramp up its network again starting from the end of this month.