Industry American Airlines orders 47 Boeing 787

The 47 787s are valued at more than $12 billion at list prices and make American Airlines the largest 787 customer in the Western Hemisphere. The order consists of 22 B787-8 scheduled to begin arriving in 2020 and 25 787-9s scheduled to begin arriving in 2023.

The B787-8s will replace American’s Boeing 767-300s, while later B787-9 deliveries will replace Airbus A330-300s and older B777-200 widebody aircraft. The entire order of new 787s will be powered with General Electric’s GEnx-1B engines.

American currently operates a fleet of 35 B787s to destinations such as Tokyo, São Paulo and Paris. It will operate 89 787s once all aircraft under its previous order and the new order are delivered.

As a result of the new Boeing deal, the carrier has announced it will terminate an existing order for 22 Airbus A350, which were originally bought by US Airways, which was acquired by American Airlines in 2015.

 “We have two excellent partners in Boeing and Airbus and our relationship with both manufacturers goes back many years. Both offer specific aircraft that provide us with the right lift on specific missions across our global network,” said American AirlinesPresident Robert Isom. “This was a difficult decision between the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 and A330Neo and we thank both manufacturers for their aggressive efforts to earn more of American’s business. In the end, our goal to simplify our fleet made the 787 a more compelling choice.”

As part of the new Boeing order, American Airlines has also reached an agreement with Boeing to defer the delivery of 40 737 MAX aircraft previously scheduled to arrive between 2020 and 2022. The revised delivery schedule will better align with planned retirements of other narrowbody aircraft.