Additional airbus delayed Guardian 11.14.02 BWIA has delayed the arrival of an additional Airbus Industrie A340-300 aircraft for its fleet, which was expected this month. "When we phase out all of the L-1011s, we will increase the 737 fleet by one additional aircraft and the A340 by March 2003," said Williams. The additions are part of what BWIA executives are calling a fleet rationalisation initiative. Both A340s are being leased from the International Leasing Finance Corporation based in Montreal, Canada. Speaking from Montreal on Monday, ILFC vice president Joseph Hermosillo said the delay was not initiated by the aircraft leasing company. "They (BWIA) asked, because of their financial difficulties, to delay the delivery. "Hopefully BWIA will be in a position to take the next A340 next spring," said Hermosillo, in the telephone interview. In February, Business Guardian exclusively reported BWIA had taken steps to lease two A340s at an estimated cost of TT$1 billion (US $180 million). Neither BWIA nor ILFC have ever confirmed the exact cost of the refurbished A340s. However, Hermosillo said, "That's pretty fair, about (US) $90 million per aircraft. The manufacturer charges over (US) $120 million new for those aeroplanes." BWIA CEO Conrad Aleong previously said the airline's future operations would only be serviced by the A340s and 737s. Williams responded to criticisms from some within the airline that the leasing of any additional aircraft at this time are contrary to the BWIA management's cost cutting plans. "We will save some considerable sums of money in the crew training and parts all the maintenance you have to have for five fleet types," he said. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (chgdev) http://www.chagdev.com/ (Chaguaramas Development Authority) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************