SIA to retire Airbus fleet

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines will retire its fleet of Airbus aircraft earlier than planned, reflecting the flight capacity cuts being implemented amid the SARS health scare, the carrier said on Wednesday.

SIA stopped using A340-300s last week and will retire its remaining nine Airbus aircraft by June, said a statement from the company, which has 12 Airbus aircraft in its fleet.

"With the revision of the flight schedules, we stopped flying the three A340-300 left in the fleet with effect from 15 April, 2003," SIA said.

"The remaining nine A310-300s will be phased out by June, five months earlier than originally planned. This is in line with our earlier announcements about capacity cuts and rescaling of operations," it said.

SIA, along with other major carriers in Asia including Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and Australia's Qantas, has been severely affected by the health scare spawned by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. -- AFP