Spring Air has enough planes on order to meet demand, Wang says

As many airlines across Asia join a rush to expand their fleets by ordering hundreds of jets, China’s top budget carrier is putting a pause to its new plane orders and said it will instead focus on operations. After signing an agreement in December with Airbus Group SE for 60 A320 aircraft, Spring Airlines said it has enough planes to grow its capacity by a targeted 15 to 20% annually. The operator isn’t likely to buy more in the “foreseeable years to come,” Chairman Wang Zhenghua said in an interview in Shanghai on Friday.<br/>“How many more do you expect us to buy?” said Wang, who is also the founder of the airline. “Some of the new planes we prepaid for will be gradually put into service.” The company has 60 in its fleet at present, including 33 leased jets. Wang’s strategy of capping new plane orders is in contrast to the approach taken by companies such as AirAsia, which last month announced a deal to buy 100 A321neos from Airbus, taking its total orders of the A320-series planes to 575. Shanghai-based Spring Airlines in December said it would buy 45 A320neo planes and 15 A321neo jets in a deal valued at $6.3b at list prices, not including discounts customary for large orders. The aircraft would be used on some of the 36 new international routes Spring Air had introduced last year. The company has 116 planes on order so far and its fleet will reach about 100 by 2018, Wang said.<br/>