It seems Air Canada is turning away from Airbus and going to Boeing for the renewal of its short-haul fleet.
According to Boeing, the order will be for
- Orders 61 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9s, split into 33 737 MAX 8 and 28 737 MAX 9
- Options and purchase rights for 48 Boeing 737 MAX with options for 18 aircraft and rights to purchase an additional 30
A total of 109 aircraft are involved in this transaction.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2017 with 2 aircraft, 16 aircraft in 2018, 18 aircraft in 2019, 16 aircraft in 2020 and 9 aircraft in 2021, subject to deferral and acceleration rights embedded in the contract between the two companies, with Air Canada hoping to make major savings in operational costs of the aircraft.
The order has yet to be finalised, and details of the configuration of the aircraft have yet to be revealed.
This is big news – lets not make any bones about this. For Air Canada customers, it’s going to be a brand new experience for them. For Boeing, some useful end of year orders and a very good steal of a fleet. For Airbus, big questions to be answered on the loss of a major customer in North America who converted brand for an entire short-haul fleet.
Suffice to say, the game could be changing again. Whilst the 737 isn’t as wide as the A320, it’s all down to costs – and airlines want to cut them down.
Air Canada and Boeing have their releases on their websites
AC has no interest in pax comfort of a wider Airbus cabin. It’s all about filling the absolute maximum number of seats.