Second big deal in 2 days: Delta to buy 37 more Airbus jets
ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines said Friday that it will buy 37 more Airbus A321 aircraft, the carrier’s second major aircraft order in as many days.
Delta says the A321 order is part of an ongoing effort to “renew its narrowbody fleet.” The 37 aircraft in the order will be delivered concurrently with Delta’s existing A321 orders, which will give the airline 82 A321s by the end of the decade. Delta already has 126 other aircraft from Airbus’ A320 family of jets in its fleet.
Delta gives Bombardier big order for new C Series jets
Delta’s first A321 arrived to the carrier in March, and is scheduled to begin regular passenger service May 2 on a flight from Atlanta to Orlando.
“The Airbus A320 family of aircraft continues to be a cost-efficient, reliable and customer-pleasing mainstay of our narrowbody fleet,” Ed Bastian, Delta’s incoming CEO, says in a statement. “The order for the A321s is an opportunistic fleet move that enables us to produce strong returns and cost-effectively accelerate the retirement of Delta’s 116 MD-88s in a capital efficient manner.”
Delta noted its latest order for 37 current-generation A321s comes "near the end of the model’s production cycle,’ indicating it negotiated a significant discount for the planes.”
The A321 order comes just 24 hours after Delta said it would purchase at least 75 of Bombardier’s new C Series jets. Delta will be the U.S. launch customer for that new line of aircraft from Bombardier. The first of those CS100s are expected to begin flying Delta passengers in 2018.