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American Airlines on Monday said it had placed an order for 260 new planes in roughly equal numbers from Airbus, Boeing and Embraer. It is the airline’s largest aircraft order since 2011 and reflects the strength of demand for air travel.
The order includes 85 Airbus A321neo planes, 85 Boeing 737 Max 10 jets and 90 smaller Embraer E175 aircraft. Boeing’s equal standing in the deal suggests that American remains confident in the manufacturer after a January incident in which a panel blew out from a Max 9 plane during a commercial flight. That episode resulted in no major injuries, but reignited concerns about the safety and quality of Boeing planes.
The Boeing deal includes an existing order for 30 smaller Max 8 jets, which were upgraded to the Max 10. That larger plane, which has not yet received regulatory approval, can seat about 200 passengers. American’s A321neo planes typically seat about as many passengers.
The Embraer planes are a workhorse of American’s regional subsidiaries, which typically use the jets for shorter trips, often between smaller airports or connecting those locations to larger hub airports. The E175 typically seats about 76 passengers in economy and premium classes.
Embraer, the third largest plane manufacturer, is based near São Paulo, Brazil, and Airbus, the largest, has its headquarters in Toulouse, France. Boeing, the second biggest, is based in Arlington, Va.
“Over the past decade, we have invested heavily to modernize and simplify our fleet, which is the largest and youngest among U.S. network carriers,” American’s chief executive, Robert Isom, said in a statement. “These orders will continue to fuel our fleet with newer, more efficient aircraft so we can continue to deliver the best network and record-setting operational reliability for our customers.”
American said that the planes would help it to achieve twin goals of flying bigger aircraft within the United States and on shorter routes as well as offering more premium seats, which are much more profitable and for which demand has grown in recent years. The airline said it would also upgrade existing Airbus A319 and A320 planes starting in 2025, expanding first class, adding power at every seat and installing larger overhead bins.
The order announced on Monday is the largest placed by any U.S. airline since 2021, when United Airlines announced plans to buy 200 planes from Boeing and 70 from Airbus. American’s last large plane order was in 2011, when it bought 260 Airbus planes and 200 Boeings.
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