Lion Air to cancel order for five Boeing 787s

A Lion Air airplane takes off at Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Beawiharta·Reuters· (Reuters)

BATAM, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian budget airline Lion Air said on Monday it planned to cancel an order for five Boeing Co 787 aircraft and replace them with smaller 737 models. The carrier said it needed widebody aircraft to accommodate more than the roughly 250-passenger capacity of the 787-8, and will place a new order for aircraft in 2015. The 737s will join a fleet that already includes a large number of that model. The widebody aircraft it intends to order next year will be used on domestic, high-frequency routes, the company said. (This version of the story corrects 787-8 capacity to roughly 250 seats from 350) (Reporting by Siva Govindasamy; editing by Tim Hepher and Tom Pfeiffer)

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