MAS in talks to lease A380s for pilgrimages

LONDON: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is in talks to rent out its A380 superjumbos to religious travel groups for Haj and Umrah pilgrimages, said its chief executive, in a move to trim financial losses and dispel some recent gloom over demand for the huge jets.

MAS has six of the world’s biggest jetliners but said the Airbus jet does not make economic sense for it at a time when it is cost-cutting as part of a restructuring plan. Past attempts to sell the planes have failed.

Chief executive officer Peter Bellew said the airline was in talks about a possible “wet lease” deal with a number of religious travel organisations that would hire MAS aircraft and crew to fly people on the Haj and Umrah pilgrimages.

The Haj is an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and takes place once a year, with more than one million people travelling by air, while the Umrah pilgrimage can be taken at any time of year.

Talks between MAS and the potential customers started about 10 weeks ago.

Bellew said he is confident of reaching an agreement before the end of December and that the planes would be used for eight months a year.

“I believe it will happen,” he said, adding that any deal would more than cover its A380 costs.

A deal to re-deploy the A380s would be a welcome development for Airbus, which was forced to announce a cut in production of the aircraft because of weak demand for large four-engined jets as airlines fretted about the global economy.

Many airlines say it is less risky and often cheaper to fly smaller twoengined jets that are easier to fill.

The fate of the Malaysian jets has been a source of market uncertainty for months.

Concerns over demand increased when Singapore Airlines announced last month that it would not renew a lease on the first A380 that went into service in 2007. Reuters