easyJet (London Luton) has announced that it reached an agreement with Airbus to defer the deliveries of twenty-four A320neo Family aircraft scheduled for entry into service in financial years 2020-2022.
The deferred deliveries include ten aircraft due to deliver in the financial year 2020 (ending on September 30, 2020), 12 due to deliver in the financial year 2021, and two in 2022. Following the deferral, the LCC will not be adding any new aircraft in the current and next financial years, but it retained options to add five units in the financial year 2022.
"Within the next 16 months easyJet also has 24 operating leases due for renewal providing the airline with further flexibility, which could include deferment and cancellation," the airline said.
The airline will update the market about its fleet plans and capital expenditure on April 16.
easyJet has recently come under intense criticism from its founder and main shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who threatened to fight for the dismissal of non-executive directors one by one unless the airline cancelled all outstanding orders. Haji-Ioannou, together with his family, owns a third of the carrier's shares.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, easyJet currently operates a total of 337 aircraft through its three AOCs: easyJet Europe (EC, Vienna), easyJet Switzerland (DS, Geneva), and easyJet UK (U2, London Luton). The flight consists of 123 A319-100s, 169 A320-200s, thirty-four A320-200neo, and eleven A321-200neo. The group owns 236 of these aircraft with the remainder dry-leased. The group has a further 114 aircraft on order, including ninety-five A320neo and nineteen A321neo.
