American to split large order between Airbus and Boeing

[sn26567]

Since many months American Airlines wanted to make a large order to replace some 250 ageing single-aisle aircraft, including 216 MD-80s. The decision should be announced tomorrow, 20 July. However several sources mention today that American will split the multi-billion dollar order between Airbus and Boeing. This would be a major change for an airline that currently has an all-Boeing fleet.

In order to get a majority of the order, Boeing has offered to re-engine its 737 to make it more fuel efficient. Airbus has of course its 320NEO and does not need such a move.

Article from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-1 ... oeing.html

Watch this space for the decision tomorrow afternoon (US time) or evening (European time).

[RoMax]

This can be seen as a major loss for Boeing... but in fact AA has never been 'really' Boeing-only. They had A300 for a long time and their MD's are now seen as Boeing because they took over MD, but in fact they aren't Boeing's. Anyway, it stays a loss for Boeing...

But if Boeing really decides to build a re-engined B737 to get a piece of the AA order, they did a good job. Otherwise I would've seen the 250 aircraft order going to Airbus completely because they said they couldn't wait until 2019/2020 for this replacement. With Southwest also wanting to have a B737'NEO' this may have largely influenced Boeing's preference for an all new design as prefered by many other (smaller) airlines/companies (like Norwegean and Hudvar-Hazy of ALC for exemple)

BTW (don't know if this was mentionned somewhere before), AF confirmed that their order for 100 A350/787's will be split between both Boeing and Airbus and that this was already decided months ago before France started to build up the pressure at AF to ONLY buy A350's.

[RoMax]

And here we go:

- 100 Boeing B737NG's + 40 options (delivery beginning 2013)
- 100 Boeing B737RE's + 60 options (engines: CFM Leap-x) (delivery beginning 2017: global launch customer)
- 130 Airbus A320's (delivery beginning 2013)
- 130 Airbus A320NEO's + 365 options (delivery beginning 2017)

http://aa.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=3286

http://www.flightlevel.be/6253/boeing-a ... -airplanes

Not suprising anymore. Boeing was too slow to react on AA's demands and they lost the first battle. The limited amount of options for the B737RE is probably because this aircraft is not even launched yet. It's a commitment and Boeing will work to get this "B737RE program" approved by the board in the comming months.

[diminbru]

And here we go:

- 100 Boeing B737NG's + 40 options (delivery beginning 2013)
- 100 Boeing B737RE's + 60 options (engines: CFM Leap-x) (delivery beginning 2017: global launch customer)
- 130 Airbus A320's (delivery beginning 2013)
- 130 Airbus A320NEO's + 365 options (delivery beginning 2017)

http://aa.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=3286

http://www.flightlevel.be/6253/boeing-a ... -airplanes

Not suprising anymore. Boeing was too slow to react on AA's demands and they lost the first battle. The limited amount of options for the B737RE is probably because this aircraft is not even launched yet. It's a commitment and Boeing will work to get this "B737RE program" approved by the board in the comming months.

big momentum for Airbus

[RoMax]

big momentum for Airbus

Yes indeed, I'm happy for Airbus (it's not because I like Boeing more, that I hate Airbus ). But I'm in a bad mood anyway. I should be happy Boeing still secured 200 orders (it could have been worse, because Boeing and many other 737 customers prefered a new design and in that scenario Boeing would have lost 460 orders and not 'just' 230), but still...

Do you remember AA declared in 1996 Boeing would deliver all their aircraft at least until 2018... Boeing messed it up for theirself by prefering a new design while AA couldn't wait so long and by the time Boeing realised that it was largely too late. Like for CO, it was logicall for AA to order Boeing. They had no need to look at Airbus because Boeing was better for them...but Boeing tought this 'agreement' was stronger than it really was. Probably they tought: "oh they are just pushing us to build a B737RE, why should they order the NEO"... a terrible mistake if you ask me.

[BrightCedars]

Wow! What a piece of news this is! I mean I would never have thought AA would do such a thing as ordering Airbus en masse like they are doing today. It of course makes sense for them as they wouldn't be able to source all their needs from a single manufacturer in the time frame they want to and would probably not want to be dependant on a single OEM for a 500 pieces fleet. But what a day! Champagne in Toulouse!

[RoMax]

Champagne in Toulouse!

A LOT of champagne in Toulouse. This is not just the biggest order ever for them, it is an order from AA.
Still 200 for Boeing (at least 100 until the re-engined is officially launched), but this order didn't make me really happy for some "mysterious" reason.

[Bralo20]

Stricktly seens, there are 0 orders for Boeing today since non of them are firm YET... Airbus on the other hand has 260 firm orders and 365 options today and that's massive... But that's just a technicality, I'm sure AMR will sign the contract with Boeing in the weeks to come

[RoMax]

Stricktly seens, there are 0 orders for Boeing today since non of them are firm YET... Airbus on the other hand has 260 firm orders and 365 options today and that's massive... But that's just a technicality, I'm sure AMR will sign the contract with Boeing in the weeks to come

Yes that's true, but not really suprising either. The talks with Airbus were much more advanced than with Boeing, Boeing reacted quite late, because they tought AA was just pushing Boeing. But at one moment they realised AA was serious so they rushed to make an offer to AA.
So I'm also quite sure Boeing and AA will finalise this order in the comming weeks as said by Boeing in their press release. At least for the order of the B737NG's, for the re-engined version order we'll have to wait some more months until Boeing finalises the main configuration of the renewed B737 and launch it officially.

[sn26567]

Two additional pieces of information on how American will pay for this mega-order:

- American will get a 13 billion $ financing from Airbus and Boeing
- American will sell its regional subsidiary American Eagle

[RoMax]

American has firmed a large part of their Airbus/Boeing order.

Boeing added the order for 100 B737NG's this week to their orders and deliveries page on their website.

Airbus has listed the initial batch of 130 aircraft all as A321neo's. AA has the option to change to another type of the A320 family. The choice for the A321NEO was abvious for AA. They want to replace their huge B757 fleet and the A321NEO is just the most capable on the market as B757-200 replacement.

Airbus booked 145 sales in July, with the majority for AA. 8 A333's for Iberia, 4 A333's for Garuda Indonesia and 3 A332's for MTAD (wich takes care of the tanker A330's)

Airbus' gross order total risis to 922 for this year, several cancellations result in a net total of 785.
Boeing booked 113 new orders this week: the majority for AA, 2 B739ER's for Korean, 2 B748F's for GECAS, 8 B77W for GECAS and 1 B77W for an unkown client. That takes the total to 345 gross orders and after several cancellations 249 net orders.

For both Airbus and Boeing most cancellations this year are from DAE Capital from Dubai wich cancelled almost their complete orders for the B737 and A320. For the B737 for exemple, there are 74 cancellations of wich 67 are for DAE. Simular for the A320.

[sn26567]

The remaining 130 A320s for American, which were sold via lessors, will appear in the Airbus backlog later once the deal is finalized.

The Airbus backlog at the end of July is a record high 4039 aircraft, equal to 7 years full production at current production rates.