Airbus announced on Thursday that Delta Air Lines has ordered an additional 25 A321neo to its original order for 100 planes in 2017, including 25 purchase options.
Thanks to this new order, the US carrier overtook rival American Airlines and became the largest customer of the A320neo family’s greatest capacity variant on the continent.
American Airlines has 120 A321neo orders of which 31 have already been delivered, according to the planemaker. Delta, for its part, has not yet received the aircraft, which is expected to occur in the first half of 2022.
All Delta’s A321neo will be equipped with the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM turbofan which, as with other models in the A320neo family, is capable of improving per-seat fuel efficiency by 20%, Airbus says.
“With our customers ready to reclaim the joy of travel, this agreement positions Delta for growth while accounting for the planned retirements of older narrowbody aircraft in our fleet, reducing our carbon footprint, increasing efficiency and elevating the customer experience,” said Mahendra Nair, Delta’s Senior Vice President – Fleet Strategy.
Delta also revealed that it is accelerating deliveries of the A350-900 and A330-900neo widebodies, of which it will receive two units of each ahead of schedule.
The renewal of Delta’s fleet of aircraft has been based on the aircraft of the European manufacturer and includes the A220, a model that was ordered when called the C Series and was manufactured by Bombardier.
Thanks to the new order for the A321neo, Delta becomes the fifth largest customer for the aircraft in the world. India’s Indigo tops the list with 398 aircraft ordered, followed by Air Asia (353), WizzAir (236) and VietJet (138).
In the United States, the A321neo was also ordered by JetBlue, which will use its jets on transatlantic flights to the United Kingdom.
