Delta to buy 40 Airbus planes
By JOSHUA FREED Associated Press on Sep 5, 2013, at 2:33 AM Updated on 9/05/13 at 3:47 AM
A Delta Airlines jet flies past the company's billboard at Citi Field in New York. Delta announced Wednesday that it has signed an order to buy 40 more Airbus planes. MARK LENNIHAN / Associated Press file
Aerospace
The first addition to the Boeing 787 family took off Tuesday from Paine Field, near the factory where the plane was assembled, to the cheers of a couple of hundred Boeing Co. employees who watched the blue and white plane with a number 9 on the tail rise into a cloudy sky.
Bombardier's CSeries aircraft completed its maiden flight Monday in a successful test run of the new narrow-body airplane.
MINNEAPOLIS - Delta Air Lines said on Wednesday that it will buy 40 more Airbus planes, once again grabbing jets that may have been under-appreciated by other airlines.
Delta said it signed a firm order for 30 Airbus A321s, which tend to be used on domestic flights, and 10 A330s, a larger plane used for international flights. Delta already has 158 planes from those two families of jets by way of its 2008 purchase of Northwest Airlines.
The deal would be worth some $5.6 billion at list prices, although discounts are common.
Both of the Airbus types ordered by Delta are widely-used and well-thought-of. But demand is slowing.
Delta is buying a version of the A321 that is being phased out in favor of a "new engine option" that Airbus plans to begin delivering in 2015. The new version is more fuel-efficient and has been getting the bulk of new orders. But the old version that Delta is buying costs $10 million less per plane.
For the A330, Airbus had booked just 11 orders through the end of July, while delivering 57 of the passenger version of that plane. As of April it had orders for another 280 of those jets, but it has been building them faster than orders are coming in.
Delta CEO Richard Anderson called the Airbus deal "another opportunistic fleet transaction for Delta in which we acquire economically efficient, proven-technology aircraft."
Original Print Headline: Delta to buy 40 more Airbus planes
Aerospace
The first addition to the Boeing 787 family took off Tuesday from Paine Field, near the factory where the plane was assembled, to the cheers of a couple of hundred Boeing Co. employees who watched the blue and white plane with a number 9 on the tail rise into a cloudy sky.
Bombardier's CSeries aircraft completed its maiden flight Monday in a successful test run of the new narrow-body airplane.
