UA to defer 65 737-700 orders; 61 switched to 737 MAX; 4 to 738.
 

Looks like we are taking more MAXs:

United Continental Postpones Boeing 737 Jets / WSJ

Weren't these 73Gs planes ones they bought on the cheap, as opposed to buying the CS100?

More or less, yes.

I feel like this is more about deferring deliveries to a later time than it is about having nicer/newer/more expensive planes.

One the one hand I don't mind switching to the latest technology. I'm not a big fan of buying the end of the line of the inferior product. However, it's an airplane and a size UA needs right now, and it concerns me that the almighty investor is the prime focus. This can only mean less domestic growth and fewer mainline operations in the short-run. That I'm not happy with, not when the market is prime for buying airplanes.

That's right... its about halting the expansion of domestic capacity...

Southwest recently deferred a similar number of MAX deliveries (67) in the 2019-2022 timeframe, so it is possible that United is succeeding into these delivery slots and will take delivery of a larger number of early MAXs, though Levy wouldn't commit to the dates of the deferral. He also notes that they will be MAX8/9s.

One of my favorite aircrafts, the 737-700 is an amazing aircraft on takeoff. It makes sense to buy the new technology, but I thought the point of the order was the cheap price they got them from. I'm guessing we will have more express for a while, what does this do for the pilot contract?

The 73G order didn't trigger anything with respect to the pilot contract, so things will stay status quo for now (save for the raise pilots will get given the Delta snap-up provision). United will still be aggressively hiring as the fleet is growing.

Listening to Levy, it seems that United didn't really have firm plans for the 65 73G it had on order, so it makes more sense to defer the deliveries to newer tech which will ultimately have better resale value, despite the higher acquisition cost. He feels the company's balance sheet will continue to improve, which I will imagine results in better financing terms for those aircraft when the time comes.

Here's a Bloomberg article with additional info and no pay wall:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-billion-quest

From a passenger's perspective, what is the advantage of a 737 MAX over the 73G? I understand the benefit from a shareholder perspective (lower fuel burn), but how does the MAX improve passenger comfort relative to the NG?

I'd disagree with the author's statement that United is 'bolstering' the UAX fleet instead of adding mainline... the 24 E75s it will now be purchasing and leasing back on behalf of RAH were already under contract for UAL flying. No material change in UAX fleet plans for now.

What will be interesting is whether the company continues to pull down 50-seat flying as planned, as there is no clear replacement for that capacity at the moment. It's clear they are shooting for increased utilization again, but without the 73Gs, that capacity stands to just go 'poof'.

It really doesn't. From the passenger's perspective, the MAX will be virtually indistinguishable from recent 737 deliveries with the Sky Interior.

This isn't all that surprising, as the 737-700 is a higher-CASM airplane compared to the 738 or 739. Same issue as the A319. The stretched models have more seats but not a large fuel burn penalty. Over the last few years, Southwest has converted a number of its 737-700 orders to 738s.

When US retired its 734s, they were replaced primarily with A321s, so I'd expect to see Kirby do something similar no that he's running UA, perhaps with 738MAX or 739MAX.

So the way I read this then: they ordered a whole bunch of planes not because they had plans (a need) for them but because they were cheap? And then six months later they decide "never mind, that order didn't make sense"?

Is this in any way related to the management changes? Or what else changed since Spring when they thought this was a good plan?

Quieter I think, but apart from that, no not really.