Qantas is cancelling its order for 35 B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from Boeing in order to reduce its spending.
The airline has also made a loss for the first time in 17 years during its last financial year, which it put down to an 18 per cent rise in fuel costs as well as industrial action in October last year.
The cost of transforming the company’s “legacy cost base and turn around our Qantas International business” was also cited as a factor by chief executive Alan Joyce.
Qantas made a pre-tax loss of Aus $349 million (£230 million) for the year to the end of June – compared to a profit of Aus $323 million (£214 million) for the previous year.
Joyce said cancelling the aircraft order would reduce capital spending commitments of US$8.5 billion at list prices.
“In the context of returning Qantas International to profit, this is a prudent decision,” he said. “The B787 is an excellent aircraft and remains an important part of our future. However, circumstances have changed significantly since our order several years ago.”
An airline spokesman said that the cancelled order would not result in changes to current plans to introduce new flights or lead to reduced frequencies on existing routes.
“The aircraft were intended to support growth and fleet renewal for both Qantas and Jetstar. However, we had made no firm commitments on the allocation of aircraft or on potential new routes,” he said.
He added that Qantas still had 50 B787-9 aircraft available to it from 2016 and that this would give the carrier “considerable flexibility” in its fleet planning.
Qantas will also take delivery of 15 B787-8s to for its Jetstar operations as planned, with the first aircraft scheduled to arrive in the second half of 2013. The plan is to move Airbus A330s from Jetstar to Qantas’ domestic routes and proceed with retiring the B767 fleet.
qantas.com.au