Air Canada Selects Boeing 737 MAX to Renew Mainline Narrowbody Fleet
 

Wow... this just out! 3 hours after speculation on Globe and Mail and Wall St Journal! (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...board/follows/ and http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...52304031517222)

Air Canada Selects Boeing 737 MAX to Renew Mainline Narrowbody Fleet
http://aircanada.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=727

Air Canada Selects Boeing 737 MAX to Renew Mainline Narrowbody Fleet
Agreement includes 61 firm orders plus 18 options and rights to purchase an additional 30

MONTREAL, Dec. 11, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced its mainline narrowbody fleet renewal plan that includes commitments, options and rights to purchase up to 109 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The new aircraft will replace Air Canada's existing mainline fleet of Airbus narrowbody aircraft, creating one of the world's youngest, most fuel efficient and simplified airline fleets.

The agreement with Boeing, which is subject to completion of final documentation and other conditions, includes firm orders for 33 737 MAX 8 and 28 737 MAX 9 aircraft with substitution rights between them as well as for the 737 MAX 7 aircraft. It also provides for options for 18 aircraft and rights to purchase an additional 30. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2017 with 2 aircraft, 16 aircraft in 2018, 18 aircraft in 2019, 16 aircraft in 2020 and 9 aircraft in 2021, subject to deferral and acceleration rights.

"We are pleased to announce our agreement with Boeing for the purchase of 737 MAX aircraft as part of the ongoing modernization of Air Canada's fleet," said Calin Rovinescu, President and CEO of Air Canada. "Renewal of our North American narrowbody fleet with more fuel efficient aircraft is a key element of our ongoing cost transformation program and the enhanced passenger cabin comfort provided by the Boeing MAX will help us to retain Air Canada's competitive position as the Best Airline in North America. Our narrowbody fleet renewal program is expected to yield significant cost savings. We have estimated that the projected fuel burn and maintenance cost savings on a per seat basis of greater than 20 per cent will generate an estimated CASM reduction of approximately 10 per cent as compared to our existing narrowbody fleet."

Air Canada continues to evaluate the potential replacement of its Embraer E190 fleet with more cost efficient, larger narrowbody aircraft that are better suited to its current and future network strategy. Consistent with this strategy, the agreement with Boeing provides for Boeing to purchase up to 20 of the 45 Embraer E190 aircraft currently in Air Canada's fleet. The E190 aircraft exiting the fleet will be initially replaced with larger narrowbody leased aircraft until the airline takes delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The company will be reviewing various options over the next six months for the remaining 25 Embraer E190 aircraft including continuing to operate them or replacing them with a yet to be determined number of aircraft in the 100 to 150 seat range.

Air Canada's plan is for its total fleet including Air Canada rouge™, excluding aircraft flown by its contracted regional carriers, to grow from 192 aircraft as at September 30, 2013 to approximately 214 by the end of 2019, on a pro forma basis. Additionally, for further growth flexibility, Air Canada has 13 options and rights to purchase 10 Boeing 787 aircraft, rights to purchase 13 Boeing 777 aircraft as well as the 18 options and 30 purchase rights for Boeing MAX aircraft.

Wow, I was sure it was going to be Airbus!

I wonder what this will bring (I'm assuming it'll be some regular 737s, but who knows):

"The E190 aircraft exiting the fleet will be initially replaced with larger narrowbody leased aircraft until the airline takes delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft."

That sucks, hate the 737

I'm just glad they're getting new narrow body aircraft. Then again if they go to a HD config I won't be flying them either....

:(

737 Interior Cabin width - 3.53m - http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commerc...f_800tech.page

A320 Interior Cabin width - 3.7m
http://www.airbus.com/aircraftfamili...pecifications/

Narrow shoulders HD seating layout here we come!

Boeing probably threw in 2 more cheap 777's with cattle class to close the deal.

Looks like a move to be all Boeing for AC over next 5-8 years

American Airlines goes with A320 and AC with the 737, never would have thought it and not happy about it, I love the A320s.

Other than it being slightly narrower, what else is not good with the 737s?

Nooooooooo...

Probably slimline seats, streaming IFE, etc. etc. etc.

I haven't seen specs anywhere for the cabin width for the MAX. I'm betting they'll do 31" pitch slimline seats, similar to UA's recent cabin updates to their Airbus narrow bodies. I hope they don't take a step backwards and remove IFE, USB ports and power.

+1, they're the reason I don't ever fly WS...

Flew the new UA seats last month: :td: yes the seats are wider - that's because the armrests are 2" wide. Sat next to a control freak who wanted those 2" and then some. No IFE (seatbacks are too thin), no plug-in for USB, power, or listening to ATC, skinny backs means plastic means Hard!

YYZ MIA is my most frequent route which I share between AC/AA and WS and my preference is always with AC 319,320s. I know it might be only a few inches but the cabins really do feel much much roomier and comfy. As much as I love WS staff, service, timeliness, etc... their 737s are not comfy at all. I just did a flight on them last month to confirm this fact. The only thing that scares me is that I am hearing really really negative reports on AA's new 319s.

Disappointing. For those with broad shoulders, I find the extra seat width in the Airbus seats vs. Boeing makes a big difference when travelling in Y. One of the few things that I still liked about AC was that the seat width in Y on their narrowbody mainline fleet was actually fairly good in the E90's and A320 series.

One inch per seat narrower. 17" vs. 18". No way the pitch will be larger than 31". Slaveship class on the way. The comfort will be identical to WestJet.

:td:

Although I do like the Sky Interior, the 320s are my preference for narrow-body flights.

AC's logic is probably that if we have 17" seats on our long haul planes, the seats have to equally miserable on our short haul planes.