Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc., attends a press conference at a vaccination site for mass Covid-19 at the Delta Flight Museum in Hapeville, Georgia on Wednesday, February 25, 2021.
Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines on Thursday agreed to buy another 25 Airbus A321 aircraft, the youngest airline to order new jetliners after a historic slump in air traffic.
Delta exercised purchase rights for the jets; The total number of firm orders for the narrow-body aircraft is 125. Another 25 have been added.
“The addition of these new, efficient narrowbody jets to our fleet means more career opportunities for our pilots and more capacity to expand our network during recreation. This strengthens our leadership position as more customers fly with Delta,” said John Laughter, senior vice president and Delta of Delta chief of operations, wrote in a memo to pilots seen by CNBC.
This year, other airlines have also expanded their fleets as the demand for travel gradually increases. US airlines alone lost more than $ 35 billion last year. Delta and other airlines have seen an increase in bookings over the past week, although this is due to domestic vacation travel rather than business and international travel.
Southwest Airlines announced its plans to purchase 100 of Boeing’s smallest 737 Max aircraft last month, while Alaska Airlines and United Airlines also increased their orders for Max jetliners this year.
Delta expects delivery of the Pratt & Whitney-powered Airbus A321neos to begin in the first half of 2022.
Comments are closed.