American Airlines to buy up to 70 Bombardier aircraft
TORONTO (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc said on Thursday that American Airlines Group Inc has agreed to buy 30 of its CRJ900 NextGen planes and taken options on an additional 40 aircraft.
The world's largest airline, which emerged from bankruptcy protection after its parent AMR Corp and US Airways sealed an $18 billion merger on Monday, said separately the more fuel-efficient planes would allow the airline to lower costs by replacing older aircraft.
Bombardier said that based on the list price for the CRJ900 the firm order contract was valued at about $1.42 billion and could increase to about $3.38 billion if the options were converted into firm orders.
American Airlines said it expects to begin taking delivery of the CRJ900s in the second quarter of 2014.
Last year, American Airlines' rival Delta Air Lines Inc placed an order for 40 of the CRJ900 aircraft, with an option to buy an additional 30 planes, as it moved retire older planes.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jeffrey Benkoe)
