Originally Posted by
Mesabah
My guess would be upgrades to the A321 aircraft would probably make the A320/A319 no longer attractive. The A320/19 is already dead at Delta, and will be replaced by larger A321s, and probably the A322 when that comes out. That leaves a gap the A220-500 fits in.
You buy 100 A322s, and 100 A220-500s, and move all 76 RJs to 50 seater routes, and that's fleet renewal through 2030 and beyond. The A322 is a better investment, as the 797 is more than a decade away, probably most here will be retired by the time it shows up.
It's not the engines completely, it's the total weight.
In a recent meeting they're looking at extending the life of the 320s and 319s. That program requires an enhanced cockpit that matches the 321 and the cost of it was very very reasonable.
So we were told that if we excerise the 100 neo options, likely, on the 321s then we easily could have a total A320 fleet in the 450 range between 200 neos, 130ish 321s and the 57/62 319s and 320s. I think 40 of the 320s are early 90s, the rest are very late 90s and 2000s. It was brought up when they bragged on the efficiency of reducing differing types at out stations.
Imho i think we stuck to the "we are not ordering new technology until its proven" and watched the Neos and Max's quickly rack up 6500 and 5000 orders respectively.
By the time the 220 "proves itself" in CEO speak it'll be 20 years old. It's already 10 now. Why would Airbus bet the future on that especially if the cockpit cant mix with 319, 320, 321, 330, 340, 350, 380 and they still have 1000s of orders to fill?