EVA Air to purchase 7 Boeing 777

EVA Air has confirmed it will add seven more brand-new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to its fleet. EVA president K.W. Chang, Boeing Commercial Airplanes senior vice president of sales Ray Conner and GE vice chairman John Rice signed the deal in Taipei earlier. Taiwan-based EVA will purchase three of the new 777-300ERs from Boeing and lease the remaining four from GE Capital Aviation Services. Deliveries are planned to start in June 2014 and be completed in June 2016. EVA is already operating 15 of the safe and efficient aircraft on its long-haul routes worldwide. The new 777-300ERs will be equipped with the same efficient GE90-115B engines that power the 15 aircraft already serving as the backbone of EVA’s fleet. In addition to the performance advantages that these engines provide, EVA will benefit from reduced maintenance costs and increased efficiencies in its aircraft maintenance management. “EVA Air is a launch customer for the Boeing 777-300ER,” said Chang. “We took delivery of the first of our current 15 fuel-efficient 777-300ERs and introduced them on long-haul flights in 2005. “Our flight records confirm the aircraft’s extraordinary performance and provide clear evidence that it meets both EVA’s high safety standards and operational requirements, leading us to adopt it as the backbone of our fleet. “Deployment of the additional seven of these aircraft and gradual replacement of our other aircraft types with 777-300ERs will standardize our fleet and give us greater operational flexibility.”