KLM mulls early retirement of A330 fleet

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol) is discussing the early retirement of its A330 aircraft, Luchtvaartnieuws has reported. With the coronavirus pandemic crippling demand for air travel, an existing plan to retire the widebodies in 2025 may soon change.

KLM does not yet have a specific plan to phase out the Airbus A330s early, but it is reportedly talking about it with lessors.

Out of its total fleet of 164 aircraft, the Dutch flag carrier operates five A330-300s, all of which are currently active, and eight A330-200s, six of which are operational, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. The -200s have an average age of 13.8 years, the -300s 7.9 years.

All five A330-300s are leased, as are two of the eight A330-200s. KLM leases one of each type from Air Lease Corporation, the other -200 from TrueNoord, and one each of the other -300s from CDB Aviation, Infinity Transportation, Nomura Babcock & Brown, and Yamasa Sangyo.

KLM CEO Pieter Elbers spoke about the possible early retirement of the A330s in an internal video to employees, according to Luchtvaartnieuws, and he confirmed to the news site that talks are underway with lessors.

However, he qualified: “You have to imagine that those lease companies have about a hundred airlines who knock on the door and say, ‘Well, I have some aircraft to return to you.’ That just doesn’t happen. So we are talking about it, we are looking into it, but going forward we will be using the Airbuses a bit longer.”

Last year, KLM committed to Boeing widebody aircraft after Air France-KLM as a group reassigned all A350-900 orders to Air France (AF, Paris CDG). It believes it will save money on maintenance and pilot training by having a Boeing-only long-haul fleet.