Aerolineas Argentinas A330-243 LV-KHT arrives in Argentina, fleet at nine A330-200s

Aerolineas Argentinas’ latest acquisition, A330-243, LV-KHT (c/n 1191), landed at Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) at 6:55am on the morning of 21May23 on its delivery flight from the Mojave (MZJ), Arizona, USA aircraft storage facility.

Sister ship LV-KHU (c/n 1223), also an A330-243, is scheduled for delivery in the near future.  

Both aircraft were originally delivered to South African Airways in 2011 before being returned to lessor Air Castle in 2020.  With these two new additions, Aerolineas Argentinas’ A330 fleet will once again reach the peak of ten A330’s that it had in 2017.  This will allow the airline to increase service from Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) to Madrid (MAD) (12x/weekly) and Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) (5x/weekly) in July of this year.  The A330’s will reportedly also replace Aerolineas’ 737 MAX 8’s on service from EZE to Punta Cana (PUJ) and Havana (HAV) plus add frequency to Cancun (CUN) (4x/weekly) and Miami (MIA) (10x/weekly).  

Interestingly, LV-KHT and LV-KHU are both powered by Rolls Royce Trent 77DB-60 engines, which reportedly allow for higher takeoff weights and greater range, compared to the eight A330-202/203 that they are joining, which have General Electric CF6-80E1A3/4 powerplants with lower maximum takeoff weights.  Aerolineas’ original four A330-223’s were powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4168A engines making for a total of three different manufacturers equipping the carrier’s A330 fleet over the years, which is unusual because the lack of uniformity usually leads to higher maintenance costs.      

Sources: