American details order for 90 new regional jets
American Airlines announced plans to buy at least 90 new regional jets this morning (Dec. 12). American, which closed on its merger with US Airways on Monday, will divide the order between Canadian jetmaker Bombardier and Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.
American says it has ordered 30 Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets and placed options for 40 more. From Embraer, AA has placed a firm order for 60 Embraer E175 jets with options for 90 more.
The carrier plans to configure both aircraft types with 76 seats. Airlines typically are able to negotiate steep discounts with jetmakers, but -- at list prices -- the firm orders would be valued at about $1.42 billion with Bombardier and at about $2.5 billion with Embraer, according to The Wall Street Journal.
American says the new jets "will provide much improved economics for the airline as they will replace smaller, less efficient 50-seat regional aircraft scheduled for retirement."
"It's been an exciting week for American Airlines," Kenji Hashimoto, AA's senior vice president-Regional Carriers, says in a statement. "Now that we've closed our merger with US Airways, we can deliver a top-tier regional product that offers a First Class cabin, Main Cabin Extra and in-flight Wi-Fi — important elements of an improved flying experience for our customers. These new regional jets are also a big win for our employees at our regional subsidiary, and will greatly improve economic efficiencies by lowering operating costs."
AA will configure its CRJ900 regional jets with 12 first class seats, 32 "Main Cabin Extra" seats and 32 regular economy seats. The aircraft will be operated by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary for US Airways. The company expects to start receiving the CRJ900s in the second quarter of 2014.
American's E175 jets will be configured with 12 first class seats, 20 Main Cabin Extra seats and 44 in regular economy. AA says it "will determine which regional carrier will fly the E175s at a later date," adding "both the CRJ900 and the E175 will fly in the American Eagle livery."
