Delta looks at Airbus A320 for Boeing-dominated fleet
Delta Air Lines Inc., the dominant airline in Minnesota, will weigh adding a more fuel-efficient version of Airbus SAS's narrow-body A320 to its fleet, historically dominated by Boeing Co. jets.
"Like everyone else, we'll look closer at the A320 to see if it might merit deeper consideration for our long-term fleet plans," Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson said Thursday night in a weekly recorded message to employees.
Airbus said earlier this week it will offer new engines for its single-aisle A320 aircraft series that can increase fuel efficiency by 15 percent.
The planes, which will be available in 2016, compete with the narrow-body 737 from Boeing.
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"We wish Boeing would do the same, but it doesn't look like the 737 will have much innovation in the coming years," Anderson said. The Chicago-based company hasn't committed to offering new engines for its 737 or replacing the plane, a spokesman said this week.
The business case for new engines is "not as compelling as we'd like to see," Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh said in October.
Delta and Boeing have long had a close relationship, with jets by the Chicago-based plane maker and other companies it acquired accounting for about two-thirds of Delta's fleet at the end of September.
Boeing led a creditors committee during Delta's bankruptcy that successfully fended off a hostile takeover bid from US Airways Group Inc. in January 2007.
Delta has repeatedly said that it doesn't plan to purchase many new planes in the immediate future, and is instead spending $1 billion on its existing fleet to add flat-bed seats and first-class cabins.
Delta's narrow-body jets include more than 100 MD-88s that are about 20 years old on average, about 50 DC-9s that are 34 years old, and about 70 A320s that are 16 years old, according to a regulatory filing for the third quarter. The carrier gained Airbus planes when it bought Northwest Airlines Corp. in 2008.
Airbus will start delivering the new versions of its A320 in 2016, giving airlines a choice between Pratt and Whitney's PurePower geared turbofan engine, the Leap-X from CFM International, a joint venture by General Electric Co. and Safran SA, or the existing engines.
"While we're pretty happy with our fleet today, we're always watching changes in the capability of aircraft," Anderson said.