By Skies Magazine | March 28, 2014 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 24 seconds.
Sunwing Airlines announced that it commenced service of an Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) Split Scimitar Winglet (SSW) equipped Boeing 737-800 earlier this month. It returned from SSW fitment by Premier Aviation on Feb. 28th, and is the first Sunwing 737-800 to be equipped with the winglets. It was followed closely by a brand new 737-800 delivered directly from Boeing to Sunwing in Toronto on March 6. The aircraft was also sent to Premier Aviation for Split Scimitar fitment before entering service, and was custom built to Sunwing specifications to accommodate seating for 189 passengers.
In January 2014, Premier Aviation completed the structural preparation on the first three of 12 Split Scimitar Winglet installations for B737-800s. The first installations were completed upon receiving FAA certification. On Oct. 29, 2013 Premier Aviation announced that it had been approved by Boeing to carry out installation of B737 Split-Scimitar Winglets, making it the first in MRO in Canada to have this approval. It had previously installed APB Blended Winglets on several older 737s.
Sunwing Airlines announced plans to retrofit its entire fleet of Boeing 737-800s with APB Split Scimitar Winglets in August 2013. When applied to the existing “curved tipped” Blended Winglets on the 737, the Split Scimitar Winglet upgrade adds strengthened spars, aerodynamic ‘curved’ tips, and a large ventral fin. These features improve performance and decreases fuel burn by approximately 7 per cent.
“We feel we have a responsibility as a market leader in Canada to continue investing in technology which reduces our environmental impact”, said Stephen Hunter, CEO of the Sunwing Travel Group. “This initiative has the added benefit of improving cost efficiency so that we can continue to provide great value for our customer’s vacation dollar”.
“We are pleased to partner with Sunwing Airlines on this exciting initiative,” said Troy Brekken, director of sales and marketing at Aviation Partners Boeing. “Sunwing is one of our first airline partners in North America to commercially fly the Blended Winglets, which reduce carbon emissions and improve fuel efficiency.”
Early in 2013, APB launched the Split Scimitar Winglet program for the 737-800 and 737-900ER with an order from United Airlines, with certification flight testing commencing in mid-2013 using a United Airlines 737-800. FAA supplemental type certification for the Split Scimitar system for the Boeing 737-800 was announced by APB on Feb. 6 2014. The new Scimitar winglets will be adaptable to 737-700, 737-800, 737-BBJ,737-900 and the 737-900ER variants, with certification for the latter model expected later in the spring.
Sunwing is the first Canadian customer to equip their 737s with Split Scimitar Winglets, and will soon be joined by Air Transat when their first brand new 737-800s are delivered in 2015. They will be followed in the next few years by WestJet and Air Canada when they start to receive their new 737MAX jets in 2017. APB expects to see a dozen airlines commence operations with the new Split Scimitar Winglets in the first few months after certification. All of Westjet’s 737-700 and -800s in their fleet are equipped with APB’s older Blended Winglet design, as are Sunwing’s 737-800s, and CanJet’s 737-800s.
All new-build Boeing 737 NextGen aircraft have been delivered with the older Blended Winglets design for almost 10 years. APB’s Blended Winglets currently equip Boeing 737, 757 and 767 aircraft with over 200 airlines in 100 countries, with over 5300 systems currently in service. Air Canada rouge has also begun adding Aviation Partners Boeing’s Blended Winglets to their 767-300s. APB estimates it has saved the airlines using the technology over 4.1 million gallons of jet fuel, translating to over 43 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
