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.