Qantas Airways has asked Airbus for an extension to a March-end deadline to order up to 12 A350-1000 planes capable of the world’s longest commercial flights from Sydney to London, the airline’s chief executive said on Tuesday.
“We haven’t heard back from Airbus yet,” Alan Joyce told reporters after announcing the airline would cut nearly 25 per cent of its international capacity due to a fall in demand associated with the coronavirus.
“We would rather wait for the coronavirus issue to be out of the way before we put a firm aircraft order in for the A350,” he said.
Airbus had been holding delivery slots for Qantas in expectation of an order.
The Australian airline also said on Tuesday it is cancelling plans for a A$150 million (Dh362.3m) off-market share buyback to preserve cash.
Qantas’ chief executive and chairman will take no salary for the rest of the current financial year, the management team will receive no bonuses and all staff are being encouraged to take paid or unpaid leave.
“We are using every lever we can to avoid redundancies,” Mr Joyce told reporters in Sydney. “We think we can do that into September with these cuts.”
Airlines around the world are experiencing a collapse in demand due to the coronavirus, which an industry body last week estimated could lower passenger revenue by as much as $113 billion this year.
Qantas said it could no longer provide guidance on the financial impact of the coronavirus, which at the time of its half-year results on February 20 it had estimated could result in a A$100m to A$150m hit to underlying earnings before interest and tax this financial year.
The carrier is now grounding the equivalent of 38 planes, more than double the 18 it had announced last month.
Qantas’ capacity reduction for the June quarter will rise to 17 per cent, up from 4 per cent at the time of its interim results. That includes plans to ground eight of its 12 A380 superjumbos, with two remaining flying and the other two in maintenance.
