American Airlines announced orders for 260 new aircraft today. This concerns 85 Airbus A321neos, 85 Boeing 737 MAX 10s and 90 Embraer 175s. In addition, the company has taken options on another 193 aircraft.

Furthermore, the Americans have converted an earlier order for 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8s to the larger MAX 10, so they now expect a total of 115 planes of the largest MAX variant. That aircraft, which still needs to be certified, is Boeing's competitor for the popular A321neo.

"Over the past decade, we have invested heavily in modernizing and simplifying our fleet, which is the largest and youngest among U.S. network carriers," said CEO Robert Isom. "With these orders, even more new and more efficient aircraft will be added."

The fact that American Airlines did not order the latest generation of E-jets from Embraer, the E2, but opted for the older E175 has to do with the so-called 'scope clauses'. Due to agreements with the unions, less well-paid pilots may be deployed on certain regional aircraft. The Embraer 175 meets the conditions for this, the newer E2 generation does not.

American Airlines already flies both the E175 and the A321neo in large numbers. These are therefore additional orders.

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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)