Singapore's Scoot to convert six Airbus orders to larger A321neos, lease 10

[July 29, 2019]  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines Ltd's <SIAL.SI> budget offshoot Scoot said on Monday it would convert six Airbus SE <AIR.PA> A320neo orders to the larger A321neo model and lease another 10 A321neos to help meet the airline's growth goals.

"The A321neos will inject growth possibilities to our

network plans for 2020 and beyond," Scoot CEO Lee Lik Hsin said in a statement.

The jets will be fitted with 236 seats, 50 more than on its A320neos, the airline said. Deliveries are due to begin in the last quarter of 2020, with the planes to fly routes within six hours of its Singapore base.

"We are pleased that Scoot is adding the A321neo to its fleet," an Airbus spokesman said in a statement.

Scoot, which has 37 A320neo family jets on order, had once planned to take 14 Boeing Co <BA.N> 737-800s from Singapore Airlines regional arm SilkAir.

Those plans were shelved after the global grounding of the 737 MAX jet because SilkAir required the aircraft to replace lost 737 MAX capacity.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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