Toulouse, France - European planemaker Airbus considers reducing its A330neo production after AirAsia X, the largest customer of the type, deferred the deliveries of 76 A330-900s on order.
AirAsia X has recently announced that it had to delay some A330neo deliveries due to the coronavirus-driven slump in air travel.
The Malaysian carrier is representing about one-fourth of A330neo orders in the Airbus' backlog. The current situation shows just how quickly the travel slowdown is rippling the airline operators and commercial aircraft manufacturers globally.
AirAsia X is part of the Air Asia Group and the Group's low-cost subsidiary is one of the largest foreign operators in China. The Chinese market represents 30% of its capacity. China is still the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak and commercial flights have fallen by as much as 80% throughout the country.
AirAsia X also said it would return some older planes to lessors earlier than planned.
30 of the popular routes on which A330neos operated are mainly in the Asia-Pacific region and eight of them heavily exposed to the virus. On March 4, CEO Guillaume Faury said that he was expecting a tough year.
The market for wide-bodies was already soft when the coronavirus first started upending travel earlier this year. In February, Airbus scaled back 2020 output plans for A330 aircraft by about 25% from 53 in 2019. It also said it would hold the production of the larger A350 at 9 or 10 per month.
Its rival Boeing said in late January that it planned to reduce the production of its 787 Dreamliner to 10 a month in early 2021 from a planned rate of 12 this year.
While wide-bodies generate more profit per aircraft, airlines are switching to smaller and more-fuel efficient single-aisle jets that can fly long distances. Airbus has seen demand for its A320 family of narrow-bodies soar, especially for larger and longer-range variants.