Malaysia Airlines yet to decide on how many narrow body aircrafts to buy
Kuala Lumpur (XFN-ASIA) - Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS)
said it is still looking at how many narrow body aircrafts it will buy to serve
destinations in North Asia.
Managing director Idris Jala told reporters at the Invest Malaysia conference that its future strategy would also look at owning some of its aircrafts rather than just leasing them.
He said this would help to reduce its gearing level as well as save on interest costs, adding that the aircrafts would be used for core networks.
Jala also said that MAS was in talks with both Boeing and Airbus for the narrow body aircrafts.
Meanwhile, Jala said no decision has been made yet on whether the airline would cancel its order for six Airbus A380 after delays in delivery of the aircrafts.
Airbus said in November that Malaysia Airlines had not cancelled its order despite the company failing to meet delivery deadlines for 10 months.
Deliveries of the A380, the world's largest commercial airliner and the cornerstone of Airbus' efforts to catch up with Boeing, are now two years behind schedule because of production problems.
The struggling aircraft manufacturer on Friday saw strikes of thousands of Airbus workers across Europe after announcing 10,000 job cuts in a bid to solve a crisis caused mainly by problems with its A380 superjumbo jet.