KUALA LUMPUR – AirAsia plans to defer taking delivery of eight Airbus A320 aircraft for 2010 and may opt to do the same for another eight aircraft the following year, group chief executive Tony Fernandes told local media.
“We are negotiating with Airbus to push the orders to the back end. Our focus next year is to consolidate our aircraft type to all A320s and return the 13 B737 that we have leased from GE Commercial Aviation Services,†he told StarBiz.
AirAsia became the largest customer of the Airbus A320-200 in December 2007 after it placed a firm order for a total of 175 aircraft, with an option for 50 more.
Deliveries are expected to run until 2014. For 2010 and 2011, the airline is slated to take delivery of 24 aircraft each year.
With the deferment, AirAsia is expected to push most of it new aircraft to its associates in Indonesia and Thailand, leaving very few new aircraft for its Malaysian operations.
Fernandes denied that the plan to defer aircraft deliveries was linked to difficulties with raising funds for the purchase of the aircraft, saying “the funding for this and next year is in order”.
“We are in negotiations with the supplier for all aircraft to have minimal or zero cash outlay and that will not put a strain on our cash.â€
