With the recovery of air traffic post-pandemic, skies are getting busier every day. More aircraft in the skies also means more aircraft movements at airports. Therefore, the risk of two aircraft colliding while on the ground increases, as a recent incident at Copenhagen airport clearly shows.
Air Greenland Airbus A330-800 hits SAS plane in Copenhagen
Copenhagen Airport (CPH) has recently witnessed a ground collision between two aircraft. On Tuesday, May 23rd, Air Greenland's Airbus A330-800 hit a SAS aircraft while being towed to a hangar for overnight maintenance.
In the incident, one of the wings of the all-red Airbus A330neo was damaged. According to local reports, after all the passengers and the crew deboarded the aircraft, the handling company Aviator towed the Airbus A330neo to one of the airport's hangars. However, something must have gone wrong, and one of the wings of the recently delivered Airbus A330neo hit the SAS aircraft.
After the incident, Air Greenland decided to ground the aircraft until at least Saturday. In the meantime, the airline is in talks with the aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, to find the quickest solution to fix the damage so that the aircraft can return to the skies as soon as possible.
Fighting against potential disruptions
According to Air Greenland, the airline is working tirelessly to avoid disruptions for customers traveling between Denmark and Greenland.
With only one scheduled flight between Billund and Greenland today, grounding the A330neo should not threaten today's traffic. The airline is working to find a substitute aircraft for the flights scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Although no alteration has been planned for this week's schedule, Air Greenland suggests all customers check their flight status before reaching the airport.
The damaged aircraft
Any ground collision is an unfortunate event for the involved airlines. However, for Air Greenland, yesterday's incident was particularly sad, as the plane involved is the airline's flagship aircraft.
The state-of-the-art Airbus A330-800, with registration OY-GKN, was delivered to the airline on December 6th, 2022. The aircraft features the latest generation Rolls-Royce Trent 7000, capable of reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 25% compared to the previous generation Airbus A330ceo. The aircraft has a total capacity of 305 passengers and features two cabin classes. The premium section seats 42 customers, while the standard economy cabin welcomes up to 263 passengers.
The brand new Airbus A330neo, named Tuukkaq, also features the Airbus signature Airspace cabin, which provides enhanced comfort, including more personal space, larger overhead bins, a new lighting system, an updated entertainment system, and WiFi connection.
According to ch-aviation, the damaged Airbus A330-800 is the only aircraft in the carrier's fleet offering relevant seat capacity. Tuukkaq replaced the carrier's former Airbus A330-200ceo, and the remaining aircraft in the fleet include one De-Havilland-Canada (DHC) Dash 8-200, with a capacity of 39 seats, and five DHC Dash 8-Q200, also seating a maximum of 39 passengers. Consequently, having the Airbus A330 grounded represents a significant capacity threat for the carrier, which urgently needs to find a "spare" aircraft to deploy in case the repair works on Tuukkaq last longer than usual.
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