American Airlines closes in on major order tilted toward Airbus

The Fort Worth-based carrier is reportedly looking at a split order of roughly 100 narrow-body jets.

An American Airlines jet taxis to the runway after leaving a Terminal C gate at DFW Airport,... — An American Airlines jet taxis to the runway after leaving a Terminal C gate at DFW Airport, Nov. 27, 2023.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

4:22 PM on Feb 27, 2024 CST

Fort Worth-based American Airlines is closing in on an order for about 100 narrow-body jets split between Airbus SE and Boeing Co., with the European planemaker likely to secure the larger part of the commitment, according to people familiar with the talks.

A deal could be announced in coming weeks, although the final mix of Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 Max 8 jets is still being negotiated, said the people, asking not to be identified as the talks are confidential.

The deal will secure replacements for some of the oldest jetliners in American’s fleet in a constrained market for new aircraft. Boeing and Airbus are largely sold out of single-aisle jets through the end of the decade, while production glitches and engine shortages have crimped output and sent prices soaring for used models.

American declined to comment, as did Airbus. Boeing referred questions to American, which is set to detail future plans at a March 4 investor meeting in New York.

Any order for the Max model by an established blue-chip customer would be an important win for Boeing, which is still working through a major crisis in the wake of the near-catastrophic accident on a 737 Max 9 early last month. Teams of inspectors from U.S. regulators and airline customers have been monitoring Boeing’s 737 assembly lines and delving into its oversight of quality within the supply chain.

Bloomberg News first reported last August that American was in talks with the planemakers for the order. Robert Isom, the airline’s chief executive officer, told employees in a meeting last July that American needed to secure new narrow-body jets for beyond 2027.

The carrier is still taking deliveries from the 460-jet deal it struck with the planemaking duo in 2011, a landmark transaction that convinced Boeing to move forward with the 737 Max, and has jets on order through 2027. The latest order would be used to replace aging 737-800, A319 and A320 single-aisle models late this decade, the people familiar with the talks said.

- Julie Johnsson, Siddharth Philip and Mary Schlangenstein for Bloomberg