Oba1Kanobe thanks for your inputīs here. Do you know what happend with the B777īs and B787īs ?? Just curious.
You're welcome. My pleasure.
The first actual B777's was offered to Arik (after the 2006-ish order) in the fall of 2009.
Like everything Arik, there was never any genuine planning to ever accept those planes (even basic stuff like training pilots), and Arik wasn't so good about paying for all the B737's they had on order.
Arik declined that first plane (built to Arik specs), and they will never see a triple seven. All the "feel good" posters around the headquarters featuring the 777 are all gone.
The principals at Arik are very much impressed with buzz (and themselves) and not so much on delivery.
The 787's... that was never serious. Not even whispers of those. Or B747-800's or A380's that you might have heard. It all falls under the hollow words of the Arik leadership. As they say in Texas, "big hat, no cattle".
They did, of course, get the two A340's as a deal with Boeing; to be a fix for B777s that they couldn't deliver. Only two Arik pilots have ever flown those two airplanes (unless you count short lived MD, Jason H., as an Arik pilot), and now it appears that those two have been moved to the singular A330. So, reportedly 2.1 million Euros monthly given to HiFly to operate those two birds. Not the fuel. Just crew.
Arik did make good faith efforts to get more 330's. But, I think their collective past is going to harm them (the long, long list of unpaid bills). There are plenty more reading this thread in Arik management who can comment more on that, if they choose.
