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American Increases 737 Orders

Aug 14, 2008

By Adrian Schofield/Aviation Daily

American yesterday boosted its 737-800 order for the second time this year, adding six more aircraft to its scheduled 2010 deliveries.

While some other airlines have deferred deliveries in response to high fuel prices and a bleak industry outlook, American has opted to accelerate its fleet replacement schedule — although it is still slashing near-term capacity like the others. The carrier believes the 737-800 is 35% more fuel-efficient than the MD-80 on a seat-mile basis.

The airline has signed a deal confirming 35 extra aircraft orders for 2009 and 2010, including the new orders as well as backlog additions it revealed in April (DAILY, April 17). The total comprises six new orders, 20 purchase rights which are being exercised, and nine existing orders which are being brought forward.

The new orders means American is now slated to receive 36 737s in 2009 and 40 in 2010. The airline says the orders will allow it to accelerate its MD-80 — and presumable A300 — retirement schedule, but no new information was revealed this week about retirement numbers. American still has commitments for 11 737s in 2013, and the carrier said it “continues to evaluate opportunities” to accelerate MD-80 retirements.

The carrier has arranged backstop financing for about two-thirds of the 2009-2010 deliveries. It could finance all of its 2009 deliveries under this arrangement if it chose to do so.

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jtf560

Upgrading the fleet more efficiently sounds like a much wiser choice than United's choice to retire the gas guzzlers and eat the down payments on the Airbus order they are canceling without bringing in anything for the future. It seems like almost everyone but United is at least thinking a little about their fleet requirements in the long run. But what the heck do I know, I was stupid enough to fall in love with flying and try to do it for a career rather than go to business and/ or law school so I could run an airline or two into the ground.