United Debates $30 Billion Aircraft Upgrade
Joe Cortez June 28, 2021
With travel recovering at a blistering pace, United Airlines could be ready to reveal a major aircraft order valued around $30 billion. The new aircraft order could include as many as 200 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and 70 Airbus A321neos.
United Airlines could be preparing to spend up to $30 billion in aircraft upgrades, split between two narrow-body, next-generation aircraft. Reuters reports the carrier is considering ordering over 250 aircraft, with the majority coming from fellow Chicago-based company Boeing.
Order Could Call for 200 737 MAX, 70 Airbus A321neo
According to unnamed industry sources speaking to Reuters, the airline could be considering adding up to 270 airframes to their fleet. The order would reportedly add 200 Boeing 737 MAX airframes to the carrier, along with 70 Airbus A320neo airframes. If confirmed, the firm orders could published value of $33 billion.
Although none of the parties have commented on the report, United is making some interesting moves with the report. A website dedicated to tracking United’s fleet notes a Boeing 737 MAX is being flown to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) for a “large announcement.” Speculation on the announcement runs from a town hall to possibly the order announcement.
737Max8 Delivery:
UA’s first 737Max 8 N27251 delivered today 2708/27Jun BFI-EWR. Aircraft to be in EWR for large announcement on Tuesday.— United Fleet Website (@UnitedFleetWebs) June 28, 2021
If United decides to make the move on the troubled 737 MAX, it would come days after taking delivery of their first 737 MAX-10. The airframe is one of 100 the carrier has on order – which could be the first of many more to come.
Order Would Top Previous 737 MAX Orders Since Ungrounding
Should United add the 200 737 MAX aircraft to their fleet, it would eclipse recent orders made by domestic competitors Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines. In March 2021, Alaska Airlines added 23 more firm 737 MAX orders with 15 options. In the same month, Southwest decided to add 100 firm orders, bringing their commitment to 600 jets.
...going to make my flying choices a bit easier, Delta is not a Max customer. neither are JetBlue and Hawai'ian. Apologies but pushing an over half century old airframe deigned for small town airports with little ground equipment (hence the short undercarriage) to such limits was a mistake from the ground up. There should have been a clean sheet design to compete with the A-320/321 which would have occurred had Boeing not cancelled initial development of the 757 replacement in 2011. Grounded for 2 years during which other issues were discovered, then another grounding after re-certification. Beginning to sound as if it suffers from the "lemon syndrome".. As I mentioned in a post elsewhere,.putting a bigger more powerful engine in a car is one thing, putting bigger more powerful engines on an aircraft not originally designed for them is another