News article today said UAL paid "low to mid 20 million dollars a piece" for the new 700's that list for 80M. Also heard on another source that the 300ER's also were a smokin' deal, but no number was published.

I will try to paste the link.

Expect another 20
777-300 orders at basement prices to be delivered by 12/2018

Certainly they wouldn't float the early retirement of the -400 fleet without a knowledgeable prospect of it's timely replacement.

Lot's of shiny new jets in the barn and on the horizon. It takes a lot of revenue to pay for that debt.

Anyone else wondering why the company hasn't announced anything about these 25 additional 737's? Is it happening or not? Doesn't seem like something the company WOULDN'T announce. Perhaps I missed it, but nothing in the United Daily emails since this post started.

It's a good question.

Here's some various suspicions/assumptions:

1) UAL could also be negotiating an add-on wide body order (more 777-300ERs?) which could be tied to both the 737 negotiations and a common announcement.

2) UAL has often, but not always, timed formal announcements to release dates of investor updates and/or earnings announcements so they can talk about it during the investor conference call. They could just be sitting on it for now.

3) Just because it was in the WSJ does not mean all the i's have been dotted in the contracts. We could hear something shortly. Recall that there was a time delay between the WSJ announcement in reference to the 40 new 737-700s and a formal UA announcement.

Negative Ghostrider; -300s start showing up this fall.

Cadetdriver's likely referring to the rumor of additional -300s beyond the 10 already ordered.

Well, it would certainly follow the current trend. UAL originally ordered 50 737-900ER's to replace the LUAL 757's being retired. We ended up taking delivery of around 65. No announcement made about exercising those extra options. Then we discover that there are 12 737's being delivered this year - a mix of 900ER's and 800's, that were not announced anywhere that I could see. It seems that recent airplane options/orders are being held quite closely to the vest.

Yup.

I don't think the company wants to spook the markets ("OMG! UAL is not exercising capacity restraint!!!") or tip the hat to competitors but if you add the facts of current orders with actual pilot hiring a pretty clear picture is painted, IMHO.

Quote from yesterday's Up Front News in the "Future Aircraft Orders" section: "The recent reports in the media that state that we have concluded a transaction with Boeing for 25 737s are speculative at this point".

It did seem a bit strange that we'd make a follow on order so quickly after the 40 aircraft order. That said, the media reports that leaked a couple of days prior to said order were spot on. Also, "We continue to evaluate our small narrowbody fleets and expect to make a decision in the near future". The plot thickens...