American Airlines has exercised options for 24 Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen aircraft with deliveries beginning this November.
The 76-seat regional jets will be operated by the mainline carrier’s subsidiary PSA Airlines and bring the regional carrier’s fleet of the type to 54 aircraft when deliveries are complete in August 2016.
“We are pleased to add these new aircraft to our growing fleet and see the award as a reflection of American’s continued confidence in PSA to provide friendly, reliable and cost-effective regional services for American’s customers,” says Dion Flannery, president of Dayton-based PSA, in a statement.
The aircraft are part of an order for 30 CRJ900s and 40 options that American placed in December 2013. PSA took delivery of the first aircraft in June 2014.
The additional 24 aircraft are valued at $1.1 billion at list prices.
Fort Worth, Texas-based American also ordered 60 Embraer 175s and 90 options in December 2013. Trans States-subsidiary Compass Airlines will operate the first 20 aircraft and American-subsidiary Envoy the remaining 40.
The first E175 from the order is scheduled for delivery to American this month, the Ascend Fleets Database shows.
American will likely use the additional CRJ900s to further shrink its fleet of regional jets with up to 50 seats. It plans to remove 21 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140s this year after removing 40 of the type in 2014.
“It’s fair to say that the industry has more 50-seaters than it needs,” said Doug Parker, chairman and chief executive of American, in a July 2014 interview. “I think we over time have been phasing out 50-seaters and replacing them with larger regional jets, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see us continue to do that over time.”
Source: Cirium Dashboard
