Malaysia Airlines plans to lease wide-body planes from next yr to expand its network. It will determine this yr whether to order recent planes, with deliveries as a result of start in 2019, the carrier’s CEO told Reuters.
Peter Bellew said load aspects were 81 per cent in January and 80 per cent in February, and bookings for April, May and June looked solid.
“My problem now is I don’t have enough seats and I don’t have big enough planes,” Bellew said in an interview in London, where he was meeting with the airline to debate options for leasing planes.
The national carrier is emerging from a crisis following two tragedies since 2014, when flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared from the face of the Earth and flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
He added that Malaysia Airlines is seeking to lease six A330 or 777 aircraft for use from 2018 and one other six in 2019, and that the carrier sees an excellent probability of getting good rates.
“Some airlines in the Middle East and Turkey have grounded their planes, so it’s a good time for Malaysia Airlines to look at those types of planes,” he said.
Bellew also said it plans to choose on an order for 25 to 30 recent A330neo or 787 wide-body aircraft by the tip of the primary half of this yr to switch the A330s it has been operating since late 2019.
He added that the 787 would enable airlines to resume direct flights to Europe, but the value of every aircraft just isn’t yet at the extent Malaysia would really like.
Bellew said restrictions introduced this week on bringing larger electronic devices on some routes from the Middle East and North Africa could prompt some carriers to cancel aircraft orders, which could impact business travel bookings.
“If we can’t book all the business class seats, over time we will stop operating all the flights and we won’t need as many planes,” he said.
Bellew said he expected the restrictions to cause chaos in the primary few days but would also impact demand for travel to the United States.
“In a wierd way, it might be helpful for us. There isn’t any hassle of coming to Malaysia,” he added.
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