Originally Posted by
MauiTigerShark
I'm just a casual observer so didn't know much about the original delivery schedule or the fact that they haven't even built a 787-9 yet....but this does beg the question....why were so many people surprised and/or angry that AA chose to give a large part of it's recent order to Airbus? Until Boeing get this somewhat dismal performance issue sorted out and behind them surely every airline will think twice before going anywhere near them with an order for new planes.
Part of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that the A320 family has proven to enjoy a substantially shorter service life than equivalent Boeing 737 models.
Additionally, adding the A320 family will cause an increase in costs for maintenance. It means a whole lot of duplication of spare parts and tooling. It's disappointing for the same reason I was disappointed when Neeleman at B6 ordered the 190s - it increased costs needlessly (incidentally, B6 has canceled its future 190 orders and has sold some of them).
Further, it surprised me that AA would order 260 Airbus narrowbodies as the tenth anniversary of the flight 587 disaster approached (yesterday) given the way Airbus pinned all the blame on the AA pilots.
Lastly, it disappointed me because AA could have forced Boeing to design a new 737 that would be an even more efficient plane than the re-engined 737 that AA insisted on ordering. Had AA demanded that Boeing re-design the 737 and held out the possibility of a 500 plane order over the next 15-20 years, Boeing might have come up with a more efficient plane than the A320NEOs that AA will be stuck with.
The only upside is that the A320 is six inches wider than the Boeings and thus could be outfitted with 18 inch seats instead of 17 inch like on AA's Boeings. Other than that, yes, I was disappointed.