SINGAPORE, May 15, 2009 (AFP) - Singapore Airlines (SIA) said Friday it will take delivery of five Airbus A380 super jumbos as planned this year despite a 92 percent fall in fourth quarter net profit blamed on the global downturn.

Company chief executive Chew Choon Seng said the carrier will receive two of the world's biggest airliners this month and three more later this year.

"We want the planes to come in and to continue with our policy of fleet renewal," Chew said at a media and analyst briefing.

"We are a long-term player here. Our strategies are long-term so the policy of operating a young, modern fleet is an ongoing one. It isn't one that you turn on or off according to the whims and fancies of the business cycle."

The airline will also go ahead with plans to take delivery of seven A330-300s in the current fiscal year to March 2010, Chew said.

At the same time, SIA will retire nine Boeing planes during the current financial year and sell them to interested parties, he said.

SIA said Thursday that its fourth quarter net profit dived 92 percent year-on-year to 41.9 million Singapore dollars (28.5 million US) as the global slump hit passenger and cargo demand.

For the full year, net profit declined 48.20 percent to 1.06 billion dollars (S$1.5 billion) while revenues came in at nearly 16 billion dollars, up slightly from 15.972 billion dollars the year before.

The airline has already announced measures to contain costs such as leave with no pay, while Chew said job cuts will be made only as a last resort.

"If things get worse... so we never say never but we are not at that point yet (of job losses)," he said.

"We are pursuing all other measures and retrenchments will only be an absolute last resort."

During the March quarter, SIA flew 3.9 million passengers, which is down almost 18 percent from 4.75 million at the same point in the previous year.

"Since the start of 2009, the drop in demand for air travel has been sharp and swift," SIA's senior vice president for finance, Chan Hon Chew, said at the briefing.

For the full year to March, passengers carried by SIA totalled 18.29 million compared with 19.12 million the year before.

SIA's fourth quarter profit plunge followed similar weak results by some of its main rivals, including Australian flag carrier Qantas and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific.

Cathay Pacific last month announced a 22 percent drop in first-quarter revenue, just weeks after it said it had lost more than a billion US dollars in 2008, the company's first full-year loss in a decade.

Qantas last month announced more job cuts and more than halved its profit forecast while deferring new plane orders, saying it had no choice if it hoped to weather the global downturn.

Qantas said it had deferred orders for four Airbus A380s and 12 Boeing 737-800s and was in talks to delay delivery for 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

-AFP