Indonesian carrier Citilink has plans to convert at least 10 of its Airbus A320s on order to the larger A321.
Speaking with Flightglobal at the Singapore air show, chief executive Albert Burhan says the move is necessary to help the airline cope with the need to increase capacity, while facing slot constraints at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International airport.
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The low-cost carrier has taken delivery of six of the 50 A320s on its order. Of these 50 jets, 15 are for the current version, while 35 will be for the re-engined variant, the first of which will be delivered in 2017.
“Hopefully the 17th or 18th delivery can be swapped to the A321,” says Burhan, adding that the airline will likely take a mix of the larger aircraft in the current and re-engined variants. He is also interested in the A321neoLR variant, which will allow the low-cost carrier to expand into key Australian and Chinese markets in future.
Citilink currently has 36 A320s and five Boeing 737s in its fleet, and is scheduled to take delivery of another eight Airbus narrowbodies this year. By 2020, Burhan expects the carrier to operate a fleet of 80 jets.
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Source: Cirium Dashboard
