Malaysia Airlines (MAS) said the first deliveries of its Airbus A380 aircraft have been delayed at the manufacturer’s request, the carrier said in a statement. The first of the airline’s six A380s which were supposed to arrive in January 2011, with additional planes being delivered at one-month intervals, but the aircraft will now start arriving in August 2011 at the earliest, MAS said.

Boeing is due to start delivering 35 B737-800 planes to MAS from the fourth quarter of 2010 and the carrier said recently it planned to lease two more B737-800s next year to boost domestic flights. The Kuala Lumpur-based carrier last week booked a net loss of M$299.6 million (US$84.69 million) for the fiscal third quarter, hit by lower demand and losses suffered on fuel-hedging contracts.