I don’t think Monday is anyone’s favourite day of the week. However I’m sure it was a very sweet one for the 3 largest aircraft manufacturers. American Airlines has in fact placed orders for the A321neo, the Boeing 737 MAX and the E175, all in the same day. Let’s take a closer look.
In this post:
- American Airlines Expands Order For A321neo
- Also Placing Order For Boeing 737 MAX Jets
- Some New Embraer Planes Heading to American Eagle
- Maintaining a Balanced Narrow Body Fleet
American Airlines Expands Order For A321neo
Although it isn’t per se a new order placed in the order book, I’m it is a deal that brought many smiles in camp Airbus. The European manufacturer after having secured some interesting orders by Asian carriers at the Singapore Air Show, has also bagged an expansion of the existing order with Airbus for the A321neo.
American, prior to this expansion, had firm orders for 134 A321neo. That grand total suddenly jumped up to 219 with the carrier adding 85 further jets of the type to the order book.
Although not specified, it is likely that American Airlines will receive the standard version of the aircraft and not one of the 2 extended range LR or XLR. However this is my very own personal opinion. The A321neo should continue to be used for domestic services or medium haul international flights and not for transatlantic connections. American will continue to use for lower demand, or secondary airport, routes the Boeing 787-8.
Therefore it is highly likely to continue to see the same cabin configuration on these new jets as on those already delivered to AA. That being:
- 20 Business/First Class Seats in a 2-2 layout
- 176 Economy Class Seats in a 3-3 layout
AA Also Places Order For Boeing 737 MAX Jets
However some joy was dealt out to camp Boeing as well. On the same day of expanding its A321neo order American Airlines has also placed a new order for Boeing’s 737 MAX planes.
Specifically the aircraft variant ordered is the yet to certified Boeing 737 MAX 10. Quite an interesting move, as the aircraft is yet to be certified with a still unclear timeline for it to take to the skies on commercial services. The variant should be certified within 2024, but we’ve seen other airlines starting to lose patience and maybe some hope (United Airlines).
The American Airlines order placed with Boeing is for a total of 115 737-10. However it must be noted that 30 of those 115 are converted 737-8 orders previously placed by AA. This new order brings the grand total of American 737 MAX planes on Boeing’s order book beyond the 150 unit mark.
Some New Embraer Planes Heading to American Eagle
Embraer also comes out of this March 4th satisfied. The American Airlines order bonanza involved the Brazilian manufacturer too. As a matter of fact in terms of pure unit numbers ordered Embraer was, of the 3 manufactures, the one to rack up the biggest order.
American Airlines has in fact placed an order for a whopping 133 Embraer E175, for a total value of approximately $7bn USD. These planes will be serving the carrier’s regional division American Eagle under Envoy Airlines’ management.
One thing must be noted though. Once again Embraer sold the E175 and not planes from the E2 family. The new generation of Embraers still seems to struggle in gathering momentum. I wonder if in the summer with Farnborough things might change.
American Airlines Maintaining a Balanced Narrow Body Fleet
In a nutshell American Airlines will be replacing and expanding its current planes with newer larger ones from the same family. It seems quite clear that American wants to maintain the current fleet balance while simplifying and streamlining its fleet by reducing the variants.
Add Comment