Dozens of Boeing and Airbus deliveries put back by Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines said it plans to postpone dozens of Airbus and Boeing narrow-body jets as it contends with a turbulent travel market following terror attacks in Istanbul and Europe.

The carrier is delaying deliveries of 39 of the upgraded single-aisle planes originally scheduled for 2018 to 2020, the company said in a filing at the weekend to Borsa Istanbul. Turkish is raising its 2022 deliveries for the workhorse jets to 30 from the six it had previously planned.

The company did not elaborate on the models that will be deferred, but it has ordered 92 Airbus A321neo, 65 of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 and 10 of the US plane maker’s Max 9 models. Turkish, based in Istanbul, said it was reducing flight frequencies and shifting to smaller planes on "demand-challenged routes" after posting a second-quarter loss of US$215 million in August.