Malaysia’s AirAsia Group reaches deal with Airbus to restructure plane orders

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Bhd has reached a take care of Airbus SE to restructure an order for 362 narrowbody planes together with switching 13 A320neos to the bigger A321neo mannequin, the airline stated on Wednesday.

Deliveries of the 362 A321neos are actually deliberate by way of 2035, the airline stated, with out offering particulars of earlier plans.

Airbus had agreed to chop costs or reschedule supply to salvage a contract value tens of billions of {dollars} with its largest Asian buyer, in line with business sources.

AirAsia obtained its first A321neo in November 2019 and presently has 4 of the planes in service after halting deliveries in the course of the pandemic, which has led to a plunge in journey throughout Southeast Asia.

Airbus bought six A321neos that had been constructed for AirAsia final 12 months, in line with business sources.

Airbus Chief Industrial Officer Christian Scherer stated in an announcement that the take care of AirAsia introduced on Wednesday was an instance of how the planemaker had labored with prospects to seek out options to adapt to the influence of the pandemic.

AirAsia Group President Bo Lingam stated the airline had completely reviewed its community and fleet technique to make sure flying on the preferred and worthwhile routes because it ready for journey to renew.

“Our enterprise mannequin is powerful, and there’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he stated. “We’re assured that our airways will have the ability to rebound and get well strongly as quickly as journey restrictions are lifted.”

AirAsia stated on Tuesday it had obtained approval from Danajamin Nasional Bhd for a mortgage of as much as 500 million ringgit ($119.67 million) with an 80% authorities assure.

($1 = 4.1780 ringgit)

Reporting by Liz Lee in Kuala Lumpur and Jamie Freed in Sydney; Enhancing by Shri Navaratnam

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