Delta, which did a deal for 75 new 100-seat planes from Bombardier the other day continued its ‘renewal’ plans for its narrow-body fleet by ordering 37 Airbus A321s, essentially the next size up from the Bombardier CS100s.
And that’s not the only A321 item in the news this week, as JetBlue took possession of another A321 that’s got a special distinction: it’s the first off the line at Airbus’s U.S. assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.
The Delta order will increase their A321 fleet to 82, and will be delivered along with the rest of Delta’s existing order through 2019. Since the new order comes near the end of Airbus’s production of the current A321, it’s believed that Delta got a sizable discount on the sticker price. As with the CS100s, part of the plan for the added planes is to accelerate retirement of Delta’s remaining 116 McDonnell Douglas MD88s, a model which once dominated Delta’s domestic fleet.
