American Airlines to buy up to 70 CRJ900 NextGen regional jets

by Devesh Agarwal

CGI of CRJ900 NextGen in American Eagle livery.

Bombardier Aerospace of Canada and American Airlines Group Inc., of Fort Worth, Texas have signed a firm purchase agreement to acquire 30 CRJ900 NextGen aircraft along with options on an additional 40 aircraft.

Based on the list price for the CRJ900 NextGen aircraft, the firm order contract is valued at approximately US$1.42 billion and could increase to approximately US$3.38 billion if the 40 options are converted into firm orders.

American Airlines becomes the first customer to acquire the newest version of regional jet which has an improved fuel burn of four per cent with the “NextGen” package enhancements. Improvement to the aircraft’s engines and ongoing weight reduction initiatives, which include upgraded avionics, will offer a further reduction of up to 1.5 per cent.

Including the American Airlines order announced today, Bombardier has recorded firm orders for 1,812 CRJ Series aircraft, including 339 CRJ900 and CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. Worldwide, CRJ Series aircraft are in service with more than 60 airlines and more than 30 customers operate corporate variants of the aircraft.