Originally Posted by
SJC ORD LDR
Do they even need something as big as a 321 anymore? Maybe they could order the 320NEO or more 220s, but I think a 321 will be too much plane for a long time.
Airbus is largely irrelevant here (even if I would rather them swap the 717s for A220 or A32X planes). This whole exercise is about leveraging an existing lease to try and turn it into cheap acquisition of new planes. Boeing holds the lease so the only transaction that is realistic here is 717 for 737Max/787/777 (and of those 737Max is the only one that makes some sense).
DAL is basically trying to see if Boeing needs cash flow less than DAL and is willing to trade current cash flow for future cash flow from DL plus the big marketing/confidence boost they get from adding DL to the 737Max program.
It's not like DL is actively looking to spend money topping up on net new planes. Airbus only comes into play if they were somehow willing to take over the DL lease of the 717s in return for an A32X order (and I'm not sure that Boeing as the lessor would allow DL to transfer the lease to Airbus -- would likely require Airbus to be the 3rd party matchmaker that moves the 717s to HA or QF)