From the WSJ

(Reuters) - UAL Corp's (NasdaqGS:UAUA - News) United Airlines has asked Boeing Co (NYSE:BA - News) and Airbus (Paris:EAD.PA - News) to propose competing bids for up to 150 new airliners, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website.


The deal could be worth more than $10 billion for the two aircraft makers, the paper said.

By asking for competing bids, UAL Corp is hoping to obtain better terms than might otherwise be available, the paper said, citing people familiar with the situation.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

 

Just in time for our contract negotiations... shocker. I'll believe it when I'm sitting in one of them.

 

Airline ordering airplanes, means nothing. As fast as they order them they defer them due to economic reasons.

I really hope UAL takes delivery of them.

 

Ya... I'll believe it when I see it! UAL management ACTUALLY wanting to expand the airline? Sounds too good to be true!

 

As important as how many they are ordering is how many they are retiring.

 

It's about time. I see B787's and B737NG's en mass coming in 2010-2015

 

Sounds about right if anything. Unfortunately this probably won't be growth (or I guess a better term is "reversal of shrinkage"). Probably more CAL fleet alignment with 787's, 777-300's, 737-900's, etc.

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UAL Corp's (UAUA - News) United Airlines has asked Boeing Co (BA - News) and Airbus (Paris:EAD.PA - News) to propose competing bids to supply up to 150 new airliners, the Wall Street Journal said on its website on Thursday.

The deal could be worth more than $10 billion for the two aircraft makers, the paper said.
United sent a formal request to Boeing and Airbus on Tuesday, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The request focuses on replacing many of the 111 aircraft in United's wide-body fleet, as well as some of its 97 aging Boeing 757 narrow-body planes, the sources told the paper.
United could sign a major order as early as the fall if Boeing or Airbus agree to certain conditions, the paper said.
However, the financing arranged by the manufacturer that doesn't eat into United's cash would be the most crucial, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
United has hired aviation consulting firm Seabury Group LLC to help it negotiate with the plane makers, the paper said.
A spokesman at Airbus said he was not aware of this particular deal but added the firm was talking to its customers all the time.
Reuters could not immediately reach United or Boeing for comments outside regular hour

 

When was the last year United made money?

Where is the $10 billion coming from? ....The employees again?

Don't get me wrong. I have a a couple friends pounding the pavement at UAL and would like to see them back at work. 150 airplanes just sounds improbable. Go big or go home I guess.

 

Be afraid, be VERY afraid. These are the a**h*** that are primarily responsible for the 717 lease debacle at MidEx and the driving force behind trying to GUT our contract. Their tentacles reach back to Lorenzo

 

They have to put in an order some time unless they just want to run old airplanes until they shutter the doors from mismanagement. Nothing says they have to start taking airframes soon, but ordering is easy and ordering now may very well actually be a rare piece of good management if they can get better deals than they could before. Boeing and Airbus are getting lots of cancellations so they may be in the mood to cut some better deals. There also isn't anything that says United has to sign on the dotted line if they don't get terms the terms they want now. I doubt the current management group will be around by the time deliveries are actually made and I wish the employees luck on flying them for a viable airline that the current jokers in management seem to be doing their best to destroy.