United Airlines Is Buying 270 New Planes In Massive Bet On Future Of Travel

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/29/ [login to see] /united-airlines-is-buying-270-new-planes-in-massive-bet-on-future-of-travel
United Airlines is placing a jumbo-sized order of narrow-body aircraft: The company is purchasing 270 new planes from Boeing and Airbus.

Last year U.S. airlines were fighting to survive. Struggling in the depths of the pandemic, they received an infusion of cash and cheap loans from the U.S. government and, between aid packages, furloughed tens of thousands of workers.

Things have changed, clearly.

Business and international flights are still down from pre-pandemic levels, but domestic leisure travel, the kind where single-aisle planes dominate, is roaring back. United is planning for growth, and ready to spend billions to get there, though it did not mention a specific price tag on Tuesday.

"It's a plan that's a nose-to-tail plan for the future," United's Andrew Nocella told reporters on Monday. "And it's something we've actually been working on for many, many years."

The company says this is the biggest jet purchase placed by a U.S. airline in the last decade. (In 2011, American Airlines purchased 460 planes in one fell swoop.)