Carriers defer deliveries of dozens of new planes

Demonstrating that the airline industry’s current focus on overcapacity in the domestic market in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices is not just a temporary phenomenon, both JetBlue Airways and AirTran said last week they will defer delivery of dozens of new planes over the next several years. JetBlue said it will put off delivery of 21 new Airbus A320s it had been expecting to receive over the next three years. That represents about two-thirds of the A320s on JetBlue’s delivery schedule from 2009 through 2011, and it means the heretofore fast-growing low-cost carrier will sharply reduce its expansion. Just last month, JetBlue had been due to implement one of its most significant schedule expansions in many months – it had planned to begin flying out of Los Angeles International Airport to New York JFK and to Boston -- but it said the LAX service would be suspended indefinitely in the face of rising fuel bills. Meanwhile, AirTran said it will defer delivery of 18 Boeing 737-700s scheduled to arrive between 2009 and 2013. “As a result of continuing record high fuel costs, we are reducing planned growth for September 2008 through at least 2009 from 10 percent to no more than flat,” said CEO Bob Fornaro.