Yesterday I wrote that American was expected to order new Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft. These are large regional jets with first class cabins. They did place an order for 15 of these and 15 options.
It turns out at the same time that American is also ordering 15 Embraer E175 76 seat regional jets. That’s on top of the 10 of these planes they ordered in the fall. So American remains committed to two separate fleets of 76 seat regional jets.
American Airlines EMB-175 Operated by Republic
Currently Envoy Air (formerly American Eagle), Republic, and Compass all operate Embraer 175s on behalf of American.
With a list price of $705 million for these aircraft it’s a closer guess that American is paying half of that.
American Airlines EMB-175 Operated By Republic in Miami
(HT: DN in the comments)
Again, what’s the strategy here? AA hasn’t shared any of that making me wonder why these new purchases.
@Alan : i’m guessing Bombardier is so desperate for *any* level of sales their discount is probably quite aggressive relative to the E75, which Embraer *knows* there’s no direct competitor to it and has limited incentives to over-discount …
and maybe also regarding pilot availability and limiting the cap-ex costs to re-certify CRJ900 pilots over to the E-jet ?
I have to assume AA is getting a really good deal on these. I fail to see how a CRJ 900 is more advantageous than the new C100 series.
Best plane in domestic flying. I like.
Whatever the plane, it means one thing for smaller airports: fewer direct flights to all but the largest “hub” cities.
This past weekend I went to the airport to pick up a friend. On the departures board there were non-stop flights to seven cities, period: Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago and one a day to one or two other hubs.
Plus there were a couple of flights to much smaller airports still provided by obscure little airlines supported by the Federal Government under a vanishing program for “underserved” areas.
That’s it folks: all time-wasting nasty hub flights, all the time.
My arriving high-powered executive friend had sent me an email that said: “just send me a list of all the non-stops to Dulles…”
Ha, ha, ha, ha. There are two non-stop flights a day from the entire state to the East Coast north of Atlanta and south of the North Pole. One is Southwest to BWI, the other JetBlue leaving at midnight, arriving JFK 5am.
Both Embraer and Bombadier are fine with me. Always hub travel is not.
Parker is exploring 6 across seating for the 175’s
705 million USD for an Embraer jet? Think you missed a decimal point somewhere
@Jeremy
The C100 is scope claused due to capacity, so it’d have to be flown by mainline pilots. AA won’t do that.
E75 is the nicest sub-100 seat option. Embraer went from the worst (ERJ135/145) to the best.
As far was the worst, I think the CRJ-200 takes the cake. Cramped 2-2 seating and windows at nipple level… I insist the 200 should have stayed as the Challenger 600, nothing more.