State-owned Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will not cancel its order from Europe's Airbus for six A380 superjumbos despite delivery delays, a government minister said today.

Last week, MAS chief executive Azmil Zahruddin said the carrier might consider cancelling the order because of the long delays, which he said were hurting route expansion plans.

airbus 1380 landing approach 171105"At this juncture, MAS has no plans to rescind the order," deputy transport minister Abdul Rahim Bakri told lawmakers, according to state news agency Bernama.

He noted that Airbus had paid RM329 million ringgit in compensation to MAS, and said the airline would now take delivery of the double-decker aircraft in April 2012.

The carrier in April said Airbus had pushed back the delivery of its first A380 superjumbos for the second time.

MAS had placed an order for six of the giant planes which were initially to be delivered from January 2007, but this was first pushed back to late 2011 before the latest delay to 2012.

Malaysia Airlines announced in December that it would buy up to 25 Airbus 330-300 wide-body aircraft worth five billion dollars to serve its growing needs. The aircraft were slated for delivery from 2011 to 2016.

The airline recorded a net profit of RM310 million ringgit in the three months to March, helped by the compensation from Airbus and an increase in traffic.

- AFP