Potential A321neo freighter may not be part of AirAsia’s cargo plan - logistics exec

AirAsia Group Bhd's logistics arm Teleport is aiming to expand its fleet of cargo planes but that may not involve tapping into its parent's large order for Airbus A321neos, Teleport's CE said Monday. Pete Chareonwongsak backed away from comments he made last week that Teleport would look to convert a "meaningful chunk" of AirAsia's orders for 362 A321neo passenger planes to a potential newly built freighter model of the A321neo. "All I was saying was, if (Teleport is) successful, we're talking about large orders in magnitude of freighters," Chareonwongsak said. "Obviously, AirAsia gives us a huge advantage, but that doesn't automatically mean that we can or we're able to source freighters from AirAsia." Teleport will look at freighters converted from passenger planes like a Boeing 737-800 it inducted last week as well as newly built freighters to grow its fleet, he said. Airbus has not announced the development of a freighter model of the A321neo and it faces little or no pressure to win freighter sales to boost the model's production, industry sources said.<br/>