Japan Airlines plans to spend 241.5 billion yen ($2.8 billion) in the next five years to procure 65 aircrafts as it rejigs its fleet toward smaller, more fuel-efficient airplanes, Jiji news agency reported on Saturday. JAL, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January as part of a state-led restructuring, plans to retire larger planes such as Boeing's 747-400 jumbo jets in an attempt to save 100 billion yen in fuel expenses in five years, the report said.
The airline will procure 18 Boeing 787-8s by 2014/15, 29 Boeing 737-800s, 9 Boeing 767-300ERs and 9 Embraer 170s, while it has started selling 95 older aircrafts, expecting to raise about 62.5 billion yen from the sales, it said. Embraer is the world's third-largest commercial aircraft maker after Airbus and Boeing.
"JAL is shifting towards the use of smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft. The fleet review will be addressed in the Revitalisation Plan which we aim to submit by the end of August," JAL spokeswoman Sze Hunn Yap said on Saturday. She declined to comment further. The plan will likely be met by backlash from JAL's archrival All Nippon Airways, which has said the use of the government fund for JAL's fleet would be unfair, Jiji said.
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