Turkish Airlines is expecting to have 26 Airbus A321neos in its fleet by the end of this year, rather than the 30 it had listed in its previous update.
The company has outlined its fleet development schedule in a full-year results briefing.
While 13 A321neos were supposed to be delivered in 2019 – taking its overall fleet to 15 – the airline says it received 12.
Turkish Airlines had also been expecting 15 A321neo deliveries for 2020 but it has cut this to 12 in its latest schedule.
Airbus has been experiencing problems with industrial ramp-up of A321neo production.
Turkish Airlines’ single-aisle fleet expansion has also been affected by the Boeing 737 Max grounding. Its schedule does not commit to any 737 Max deliveries in 2020, whereas three months ago it was still indicating it would receive 38 this year.
As a result the airline is listing 239 single-aisle jets, rather than 278, in its fleet by the end of 2020 – although the situation with Max deliveries remains uncertain.
Turkish Airlines’ full-year operating profit has halved $585 million, as revenues for the period failed to rise in line with expenditure.
The flag-carrier’s revenues were up by 2.9% to $13.2 billion but operating expenses increased to $12.6 billion, a rise of 8.2%.
While fuel costs were up slightly, the main expenditure increases concerned personnel and depreciation.
But the company benefited from tax adjustments and its net profit increased to $788 million from the previous $753 million.
Profit for its SunExpress joint venture slipped to $62 million from the prior level of $67 million, despite a rise in revenues to $1.57 billion.
