Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) will allow one of its fifteen B787-9 order options lapse this month with the future of others to be decided in the coming months.

According to Reuters, chief executive Alan Joyce told a media gathering in Singapore this week that Qantas was still considering whether it needed more B787s to add to the eight already on order and which are due to arrive by the end of this year. Aside from the fifteen options for B787s deliverable by 2020, Qantas also has purchase rights for thirty more Dreamliners due to deliver through 2025.

“We balance up what are the relative business cases between Jetstar, between Qantas International, Qantas Domestic and Loyalty and figure out given our limited resource of capital what is the best business case to invest the capital in,” he said.

Joyce also said that Qantas Group was looking into ordering A321neo for Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine). The budget carrier has ninety-nine A320neo on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and could use the A321neo's added capacity and range to replace older A320ceo on routes such as Sydney Kingsford Smith-Denpasar; Indonesia. This, in turn, could free up Jetstar's B787-8s which ould then be used in developing other routes in Asia/Oceania.