Tunisia's national carrier, Tunisair (TU), has apparently backed out of plans to acquire three Airbus A350-800s, the shortest fuselage version in Airbus' new A350 XWB family of mid-sized widebody airliners, after the European aircraft manufacturer failed to list the order in its May 2013 orders summary. |
| A Tunisair A350 (Airbus SAS) |
According to FlightGlobal, Tunisair has yet to confirm the move, though its other orders for three A330-200s and ten A320s appear to be intact.
As a means of cutting rising fuel costs Tunisair, in 2008, launched a fleet renewal project involving the purchase of 16 aircraft over 12 years and the gradual withdrawal of airplanes whose age exceeded 20 years; its four B737-500s, three A300-600s and an ATR42-300 were subsequently put for sale.
The move now means the A350-800 has only 89 orders with Airbus adamant that production of the type to go ahead.
