Originally Posted by gloopy

I bet we could get some 73's or 319/20/21's in 2013 to start the gradual and over a decade long process of modernizing the fleet. I can see either as long as the price and terms of the lease make sense for us.

I think Airbus is going to win a large percentage of the order and maybe all. IMO the logic being that there is nothing wrong with starting the replacement process before the NEO/797 are ready for delivery. Before that time we could still use some newer gen stuff as a buffer. Keep in mind total replacement is going to take a long time. We could also use some current gen 321's with wing/sharklets to start replacing the 75's. Then once the NEO/797 is made and actually ready for delivery, we can switch the orders to them. Once replacement is complete, we can then refresh the relatively few new non NEO/797's we got in the intermediate years.

IOW it doesn't have to be all or nothing all at once WRT to the current gen or the next gen, especially when the current gen 737 and 320 are already in our fleet. We can start with current gen to replace the 88's, 757's and oldest 320's and when the good stuff shows up we finish the
modernization and then clean up the rest.

Originally Posted by georgetg

Republic ordered LEAP engines on their A320/319neos because GE owns GECAS.
Republic got a break on existing leases, spares for the GE CF34 motors on the existing Embraer-jets and a crazy good deal on the leasing and GE LEAP motors for the new Airbus NEOs ordered. Bombardier and Pratt just can't match that...

Republic basically got a smoking deal from GE on reducing their current cost to buy time...that gives them options, like spinning off Frontier.

DALs first jets will be A321 with sharklets and CFM56 motors.
The sharklets and the load alleviation system get those birds a 6000lbs. MTOW increase, enough to consistently fly trans-cons. The A321 with sharklets will replace the oldest 757s as they have a 20% per seat fuel burn advantage over the 757--that's much much better than what the 787 offers over the 767...

The follow on order for DAL will be for A320neos with the GTF to replace the oldest A320s and MD88s...
Delta is big enough to get good leasing rates from companies other than GECAS and the GTF will have a 3-5% fuel burn advantage over the GE LEAP motors...

Now if we can only get our pathetic Airbus rates adjusted before the A321s show up...

Cheers
George