Less Travel Cuts Demand For New Aircraft

Qantas Airlines has cancelled orders for half of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners it had expected to buy, citing the global economic recession and plummeting demand for seats on its aircraft.

Qantas had been Boeing's biggest customer for the new, all-composite airliner, which has suffered a series of setbacks. The first flight of the Dreamliner was to have been this week, but that test was cancelled after questions arose about the strength of the composite fuselage.

Bloomberg News is reporting that the airline canceled 15 787-9 aircraft scheduled for delivery by 2015 and will delay taking another 15 787-8s by four years, Sydney-based Qantas said in a statement Friday. The changes weren’t influenced by Boeing’s announcement this week of the design issue with the planes, the airline said. At current prices, the cancellation is valued at about $3.1 billion.

“Delaying delivery, and reducing overall 787 capacity, is prudent,” Chief Executive Alan Joyce said in the statement. “Qantas announced its original 787 order in December 2005, and the operating environment for the world’s airlines has clearly changed dramatically since then.”

Qantas now expects the first Dreamliner delivery, 15 aircraft for its Jetstar discount carrier’s international routes, sometime in mid-2013, about three years behind the original schedule.

Even with the cancellation, Qantas will remain one of Boeing's biggest Dreamliner customers, along with Japan's All Nippon Airways. Each has ordered about 50 of the planes.

FMI: www.qantas.com, www.boeing.com