American Airlines defers A321neo orders
American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) says it has reached an agreement with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) to defer twenty-two A321neo that were previously scheduled for delivery in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The carrier said in its 2Q18 filings that these aircraft are now scheduled to be delivered in 2024. However, its first A321neo of 100 on order is still on track to arrive in early 2019. The changes are expected to reduce the airline's planned capital expenditure by approximately USD1.2 billion over the next three years.
American's Chief Financial Officer, Derek Kerr, said during an earnings call that the decision to defer the jets would allow the carrier to tap added benefits from its Project Oasis, a plan to outfit new cabins on about 250 B737-800s and 200 A321-200s. Among the plan's more important points are that the B737-800s will feature 172 seats (up from 160), equal to their incoming B737 MAX 8s, while the A321-200s will be densified to seat 190, equal to the A321neo.
"We have the capacity already," Kerr said. "We have aircraft that we can keep around, we're putting B737s through the Oasis Project [sic] and modifying those aircraft, so there really wasn't the need to take on new aircraft at this point in time, which enabled us to push them [the A321neo] out till 2024."
"You don't want to replace aircraft too early when other aircraft are fine and can be flown in the markets that we have. So, that was just more of a decision from a CapEx standpoint to push those out."
These revisions included, American said it expects to add seventeen A320neo Family jets in 2019, 15 in 2020, 18 in 2021, 20 in 2022, and thirty in 2023 and beyond. By the end of next year, it is also expecting to retire its remaining McDonnell Douglas jets (nine MD-82s and thirty-three MD-83s)..
The carrier said in its 2Q18 filings that these aircraft are now scheduled to be delivered in 2024. However, its first A321neo of 100 on order is still on track to arrive in early 2019. The changes are expected to reduce the airline's planned capital expenditure by approximately USD1.2 billion over the next three years.
American's Chief Financial Officer, Derek Kerr, said during an earnings call that the decision to defer the jets would allow the carrier to tap added benefits from its Project Oasis, a plan to outfit new cabins on about 250 B737-800s and 200 A321-200s. Among the plan's more important points are that the B737-800s will feature 172 seats (up from 160), equal to their incoming B737 MAX 8s, while the A321-200s will be densified to seat 190, equal to the A321neo.
"We have the capacity already," Kerr said. "We have aircraft that we can keep around, we're putting B737s through the Oasis Project [sic] and modifying those aircraft, so there really wasn't the need to take on new aircraft at this point in time, which enabled us to push them [the A321neo] out till 2024."
"You don't want to replace aircraft too early when other aircraft are fine and can be flown in the markets that we have. So, that was just more of a decision from a CapEx standpoint to push those out."
These revisions included, American said it expects to add seventeen A320neo Family jets in 2019, 15 in 2020, 18 in 2021, 20 in 2022, and thirty in 2023 and beyond. By the end of next year, it is also expecting to retire its remaining McDonnell Douglas jets (nine MD-82s and thirty-three MD-83s)..
