American to order more Boeing jets while delaying others

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines said Wednesday that it plans to exercise options to buy 30 more Boeing 737 Max jets while delaying delivery of Boeing 787s, larger jets that are being plagued by production flaws.

The airline expects to receive half the 737 Max 8 jets next year and the other half in 2024, as it seeks to rebuild from the pandemic.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

For Boeing, the orders from a major customer builds on a huge order for passenger and cargo planes that Qatar Airways announced earlier this week.

At the same time, however, American said it will delay delivery of an undisclosed number of two-aisle 787 jets that were scheduled to begin last month. Those deliveries fell through because of problems on the production line, and American said they will now start in the fourth quarter and run into 2027.

The schedule could change “based on various potential factors including production delays by the manufacturer,” American said in a filing.

Boeing has struggled to fix production flaws in the 787, which it calls the Dreamliner. Boeing halted deliveries in late 2020, then briefly resumed them before again stopping shipments in May 2021.

American said in December that it will drop some international flights from its summer 2022 schedule because it didn’t receive the 787s that it expected to have in its fleet.

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