British Airways to Modernize Fleet Next Year

British Airways will modernize its fleet after the national airline goes private, probably next June, the airline’s chairman, Lord King, said Tuesday.

The investment is estimated at $700 million each year for 10 years, though the actual outlay will be less because some new planes will be leased, not bought.

“We believe that the age of the fleet is acceptable, but we do have plans to replace the fleet,” King told a news conference called to announce pretax earnings of $285 million for the six months ended Sept. 30, up from $270 million in the year-ago period.

This was despite a loss of $13 million from accidents. Operating earnings fell $44 million to $293 million, which the airline blamed largely on currency transactions, the loss of profitable Saudi Arabian routes to rival British Caledonian, leasing aircraft to replace aging Tridents and accidents.

“When we get into the private sector, we will want to have a progressive replacement of the fleet,” he said.

British Airways Chief Executive Colin Marshall said the program, which is in addition to routine modernization, was equivalent to five or six aircraft a year.

The company’s executives answered questions about public concern over an incident over Boston last Sunday, when a British Airways’ Boeing 747 lost part of a wing flap while coming in to land.

The airline, which has the world’s largest network of routes, has a huge Boeing fleet, including 747s, 737s and 757s.

King said plans for a public offering of British Airways, a key part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s sales of state industries to private hands, is well advanced.

The sale was held up by Sir Freddie Laker’s billion-dollar lawsuit in the United States accusing British Airways and others of plotting the bankruptcy of his cheap-flights airline in 1982. That was settled out of court last July, and King said a class-action suit in the United States involving Laker creditors is expected to be settled early next year.

“I can’t see there will be a hold-up beyond that,” he said. “I can only hope that we go forward in June.”