Spanish airline Iberia will put the brakes on a planned fleet expansion due to higher fuel prices, Expansion newspaper reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources close to the company.
The flag carrier will also further reduce its domestic and European flights to focus on Latin American routes over the next three years, Expansion reported.
It will keep its fleet at last year's size of 132 planes instead of increasing it to 140 by 2011, the paper said.
An Iberia spokeswoman said the airline's strategic plan for 2009 to 2011 was still being worked on and should be ready by September.
She said market conditions had changed over the last few months and this would be reflected in the plan, but declined to comment further.
The twin threats of high fuel and an economic downturn are forcing many airlines to shrink operations. Brokerage BPI said on Friday cutting the fleet would not be enough for Iberia.
"We believe that this should not be enough to offset the high oil prices and the airline should continue working in identifying sources for revenue enhancement but more importantly for cost cutting," BPI said.
