On December 3rd, Airbus booked a 52-frame UFO order for the A320.

On another forum, someone who knows who that customer is noted they were surprised due to that customer's financial position.

UA has noted that they have an RFP out to Boeing for the 737NG and Airbus for the A320. And it seems a day doesn't go by without someone making a comment that UA is "not long for this world" and will soon be liquidated.

Personally, I don't see how the 737NG has a chance at UA with the Classics now gone. For most of what UA uses their 757-200s for, the A321-200 is fine and even for the Hawaii ops, I'd be surprised if the A321-200 really comes up all that short. I expect UA is not flying the 27t payload model of the 752 so the A321-200 would likely be flying below MZFW so they can fill the tanks more.

I think the customer for that order is QR.

If UA goes for the A320, it better be with the new sharklets. Otherwise, the resale value will suffer. Note that airbus has not figured a way to back fit these to the existing A320s, only the new production models.

What happened to the 40+ A320 family aircraft that UA had on order?

Is QR in poor financial shape?



They canceled it while in bankruptcy. So they would need to place a new order with Airbus.

The B787/A350 order announcement shows that UA will accept different models in its fleet, particularly when it can secure good financial terms from the OEMs. That is probably one of the reasons the order was split. It is one thing to provide great terms for 25 units, but another for a full 50 (and the terms of the options are subject to future negotiations). So if Boeing can provide UA with better terms for the 739ER, which weighs almost 10,000 pounds less than the A321, UA could bite. I agree that the A321 has the edge, but there does seem to be a realization now that there are better operating costs to be had with the 737NG. So I don't think that the 739ER is out of the running yet, and stranger things have happened.

I think the main reason UA split the order was that neither OEM could provide them a complete family of planes. UA needed something larger than the 787-9 and something smaller than the A350XWB-800. And with their claims they are not seeking a VLA because they're "not the latest technology", that means the largest plane UA could operate would be the A350XWB-1000.


And if UA enters into a marketing and revenue-sharing agreement across the Pacific (say with NH and OZ) like they have with LH across the Atlantic, they may not need to operate a VLA. Instead, they can provide feed into their hubs which will then transfer to Star Alliance VLAs for the run across the ocean, with UA getting up to half of that revenue. The 787s and A350XWBs would then be used to directly serve markets that UA can profitably exploit at lower traffic levels or "cherry-pick" certain hub-to-hub connections also served by their VLA partners.

Think AS. They partner with everyone and their grandmother, but they also directly compete with those partners on some AS hub to Partner hub missions with one or two 737s a day. This allows AS to skim off the cream of their own frequent flyers while benefitting from all the connecting traffic their partners bring in on larger planes (757s and 767s).

So UA could operate a daily flight to NRT and FRA and ICN from their hubs in conjunction with their Star Alliance partner VLAs or A350XWB-1000s, but only need an A350XWB-900 to carry their direct share of the traffic. And they could directly serve many of secondary markets in Europe they do know with a 787 or A350XWB because it's more convenient for travelers than connecting in FRA and they're willing to pay for that convenience. UA could also start doing the same to Asia, directly connecting to SIN, BKK, KIX, NGO and other cities from their hubs.

Does anyone remember the TWA order where they split between the A318 and the Boeing 717? That was purely a financial transaction also where TWA ended up in a NET cash position. Looks like something similar is happenening here.

This doesn't seem to be a UAL order per the link below. My guess is China.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNBFA00099720091209?rpc=44

Agreed. The article itself added further confusion since UA, IIRC, was interested in replacing its 752 fleet.

The order appears in Airbus's books on 30th November 2009, and is from an existing customer. In Airbus published data the customer is shown as 'Undisclosed Customer'. If it were a NEW customer then Airbus would mark this with an asterisk, i.e. 'Undisclosed Customer*'.

Two separate quotes here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091203-710251.html

http://topnews.ae/content/21011-airbus-bag...-a320-aircrafts

both suggest that this order is from a leasing company, and not an airline.

Remember that some leasing companies are also in precarious financial positions because of the lack of credit available to them, especially ILFC and CIT.

If indeed it is a leasing company then potential candidates for this order are ILFC, GECAS and BOC Aviation. There are other leasing companies who are Airbus customers, but most are too small to contemplate an order of this magnitude.

Dave