Singapore Airlines Ltd, Asia's largest carrier by market value, may buy more Boeing 777s if there are further delays with Airbus SAS's A380 superjumbo jet.

"Boeing 777-300ERs would be a useful alternative to A380s," airline chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng told Bloomberg in Istanbul on December 10. "We could upsize the order if there are further delays with the A380."

Singapore Airlines began taking delivery of six 777-300ERs last month and expects to have 10 in service by mid-2007. Chew has said the 278-seat planes will make up for the loss in capacity caused by the missing A380s.

Other carriers, including Emirates and FedEx Corp, have also turned to the 777 model to replace the A380.

The Singapore-based airline has 10 firm orders for Airbus's 555-seat A380, the world's biggest commercial aircraft, and said in July it intends to buy nine more.

Since then, Airbus has pushed back the delivery date because of wiring problems, and the carrier doesn't expect to get the first of the planes until next October, instead of this month as planned.

Singapore Airlines placed a US$3.6 billion (28.16 billion yuan) order in August 2004 for 18 777-300ERs and has the option to buy 13 more.

Emirates, Airbus's biggest A380 customer, in October said it planned to lease at least five additional 777s to help compensate for the shortfall in capacity caused by A380 delivery delays.

FedEx, the world's largest air cargo company, said on November 7 it would cancel its order for 10 freighter versions of the A380 valued at as much as US$2.3 billion and buy 15 777 freighters instead for up to US$3.6 billion.

It was the first order cancellation after the Toulouse, France-based, Airbus pushed back its A380 delivery schedule for a third time on October 3.