my opinion - how to restructure Asiana Airlines's fleet

South Korea's 2nd largest airline i.e. Asiana has been officially put up for sale by the Kumho family due to mounting financial issues originally stemming from having a debt of US$ 2.7 billion. The Korean Development Bank is willing to provide new loans up to US$ 900 million provided the sale takes place which includes subsidiaries Air Seoul + Air Busan. 

My personal opinion is that OZ's financial problems are likely to initially arise from its complex wide body fleet structure which is quite ludicrous whilst thankfully the narrow body fleet revolves solely around the Airbus A320 family only. 

The current OZ wide body passenger fleet consists of:

15 A333s + 6 B763s + 8 A359s + 2 B744s + 9 B772ERs + 6 A380s totaling 46 aircraft along with 9 A351s being on order.

OZ has 25 A321NEOs on order starting from 2019 whilst the A351s deliveries commence from 2020-21. 

To save on capital costs initially, as well as raise cash, I suggest the following:

a) The A351 deliveries should be deferred to commence from Q2-2021 to save on capital costs.

b) All deliveries of A321NEOs from 2020 onwards should be postponed till 2022 due to the same reason mentioned above.

c) 6 B763s + 2 B744s should be sold off by Q2-2020 latest to raise cash and taken out of the fleet mix to reduce complexity 

d) A380s should be sold off starting from Q2-2020 onwards and out of service completely by end of IATA Summer 2021 season i.e. Oct 2021 to save on operating costs as well as raise cash. They are currently used exclusively on FRA, JFK and LAX services. The A351s would eventually be their replacement aircraft in OZ's fleet. 

e) The 15 leased A333 fleet should be renegotiated and not have their contracts renewed beyond Summer 2023. 

f) In addition, the existing 7 A320s + 2 A321-100s + 16 A321-200s should be sold off between 2022 and 2023 as each new A321NEO gets delivered. 

g) The 9 B772ERs (avg age 13 years) should be sold from 2021 onwards and completed by Q4 2022. Each B772ER should be phased out as each A351 gets delivered in 2022. This will raise cash as well as take out another fleet type from the wide body mix. 

In this manner from IATA W23 season, OZ's entire narrow and wide body fleet gets standardized in the below manner: 

Narrow body - 25 A321NEOs exclusively seating 180 pax (12J + 168Y)

Wide body - A350 family exclusively (on order 30 firm of which 8 already delivered) + 10 options). To have a commercially viable operation on its long haul + regional route network as well as cater to local cargo market requirements, the break down of the OZ A350 firm order for 30 units should be 16 A359s + 14 A351s (MTOWs). 

In this above proposed manner, the fleet mix gets standardized across 2 types of aircraft only versus 7 currently which is totally insane.  

If the financial performance of the airline improves in 2022-23, the 10 A350s on option should be renegotiated in the below manner:

a) 5 A350s exchanged for 10 A321NEOs to boost its regional network especially on its highly popular Korea-China/Japan/Vietnam routes 

b) The remaining 5 A350s should be converted to the A351-MTOW due to its superior economics on long haul and high demand regional Asian routes. 

c) If the options get exercised, the fleet in 2025 would comprise of 35 A321NEOs + 19 A351MTOWs + 16 A359s totaling 70 aircraft.