Flyers Chat

American Airlines today announced an order for 460 aircraft. Claimed as the largest aircraft order ever by any airline, American said the order would include 260 Airbus A320 family planes and 200 Boeing 737NG family planes. Deliveries of both Airbus and Boeing planes would start from 2013. The deal also includes options to buy additional 465 planes through 2025. The deal is worth more than $38 billion.

American Airlines A321- Courtesy: American Airlines

The aviation media was abuzz with reports of American finalizing the plane order for sometime now. With this order, Airbus broke the monopoly Boeing held for years over American’s fleet.

Boeing was forced to react to market realities by agreeing to supply B737s fitted with more fuel efficient engine rather than developing a brand new replacement for the best selling plane in the aviation history.

The order is a major coup for Airbus. My prediction is that US airlines would announce new plane orders structured like the one by American Airlines, giving almost equal share of planes to Boeing and Airbus. That is a significant victory for Airbus’s bet on modifying the A320 family with New Engine Option (neo) rather than designing a brand new plane.

American Airlines is talking to Airbus and Boeing for a huge order of new aircraft, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. American, one of the two major all-Boeing operators in the US (Southwest being the other), first got a tentative deal hashed out with Airbus and took that to Boeing for counter offer, the report says.

Boeing managed to have a virtual lock on American fleet by offering it a special status in terms of discounts and delivery.

Here are some interesting thoughts: Airbus’ A320 is currently the best-selling plane in the commercial aviation industry (even though B737 retains the title as the best-selling plane in the history of commercial aviation). If anything is evident from the recently concluded Paris Air Show, it is the Airbus’ trouncing performance over Boeing in terms of aircraft orders, especially with the huge popularity of its A320 neo (New Engine Option). This puts more pressure on Boeing to spice up its 737, either by upgrading it or completely redesigning it. Boeing already announced that it would detail the plans for 737 by end of this year. With American now talking to Airbus, it puts additional pressure on Boeing to show something that it can tout as an alternative to the A320 family.

It would be interesting to see how American’s plan would affect the fortunes of the two biggest aircraft makers. Let’s wait and see!