Qatar Airways wants to swap Airbus A320neos for A321neos, new delivery date

Qatar Airways is in talks with Airbus to convert its order for up to 80 A320neos to the larger A321neo, its chief executive said on Monday. The airline has refused to accept four A320neos so far this year over performance issues with the aircraft’s engines, a spokeswoman said. “We are in negotiations with Airbus about how we can continue our relationship and keep our order on track minus the ones that we cancelled,” CEO Akbar Al Baker said. He said the airline wanted to take delivery of the larger A321neo jets from 2018 and was considering swapping the engine order to CFM, a joint venture between General Electric Co and Safran SA of France. An Airbus spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.<br/>