Singapore Airlines says deferring aircraft deliveries

Singapore Airlines says deferring aircraft deliveries

Reuters Singapore

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Saturday it was in talks with aircraft manufacturers to defer delivery of billions of dollars worth of new plane orders as part of a bid to cut costs due to a sharp slowdown in the industry.

"We are not specifying what or when," an SIA spokesman told Reuters on Saturday.

After posting an 88.2 percent slump in net profit to S$134.8 million (US$73.7 million) for the six months to September 30, SIA said it planned to cut capacity, defer airline deliveries, freeze hiring and implement wage cuts.

SIA passenger and cargo operations are being hit hard by the U.S. economic slowdown, worsened by the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and a slump in global electronics demand.

SIA also warned that the full brunt of the fallout from the attacks would be felt in the second half with Cheong saying that "maintaining its loss-free record this year will be a challenge".

The world's second largest airline by market capitalization, which operated 88 passenger aircraft as of Oct. 1 2001, has another 50 aircraft on order and 52 on option, the airline's Web site showed.

The airline has one firm order and nine options for Boeing Co's B747-400, two orders for B777-300, 20 orders and 23 options for B777-200, 10 orders for B777-200ER, 10 orders and 15 options for Arabs A380-800, two orders for A340-300E and five orders and five options for A340-500.