As planes fill up, Malaysia Airlines seeks wide- body jets

Malaysia Airlines is looking to lease wide- body planes to boost its network from 2018 and will make a decision on a order of new planes for delivery from 2019 later this year, the carrier’s chief executive told Reuters.

CEO Peter Bellew said load factors – or how full its planes are – were 81 percent in January and 80 percent in February and that bookings for April, May and June were looking solid.

“My problem now is I don’t have enough seats and I don’t have big enough aircraft,” Bellew said in an interview in London, where he was meeting with an airline to discuss options to lease planes.

The national carrier is emerging from a turnaround after twin tragedies in 2014, when flight MH370 disappeared in what remains a mystery, and flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

Malaysia Airlines wants to lease six Airbus A330s or Boeing 777s for use from 2018 and a further six for 2019. Bellew said the airline saw a good chance to receive some good rates.

“Some airlines in the Middle East and Turkey have grounded aircraft so it’s a good time for Malaysia Airlines to be looking for these type of aircraft,” he said.

Bellew also said he planned to make a decision on an order for 25 to 30 new A330neo or 787 wide- body planes by the end of the first half of 2017 to replace its A330s from the end of 2019.

The 787 would allow it to resume nonstop flights to Europe, but the pricing of either jet is not yet where Malaysia would like it to be, he said.

The restrictions announced this week on bringing larger consumer electronic devices into plane cabins on some routes from Middle Eastern and North African countries could also push some carriers to cancel aircraft orders, Bellew said, saying that it could impact business travel bookings.

“If you’re not getting the business class seats filled up, you will end up not operating flights over time and then you won’t need as many planes,” he said.