United Airlines to purchase 787's

Very good news for the 787 order books.  United Airlines, the No. 3 U.S. airline by traffic, has announced that it plans to purchase 25 787-8's, worth around $4 billion at list prices.  United will join domestic rivals Delta, American Airlines, and Continental as operators of the 787 Dreamliner.  But United didn't solely choose Boeing to help replace its twin-aisle fleet of 767-300's and 747-400's.  The airline also announced that it will purchase 25 of Airbus' new A350, which is a direct competitor to the 787.  The price of that contract is roughly around $6 billion.  Not really sure how United plans to pay for these new aircraft, what with United having emerged from bankruptcy-court reorganization in 2006 and continually reducing its capacity in the face of sky-rocketing oil prices and the global recession.  No word yet on whether Boeing and/or Airbus has agreed to provide financing.  On another note, this is a pretty shrewd move by UAL to split the order between the two companies, since it would force the two manufacturers to be more competitive for future UAL orders.  In fact, the airline has secured purchase options for 50 of each aircraft.  So this could be just the beginning of United's future order scenarios.  Others have also speculated that by having both new aircraft types in its fleet, it would make United more palatable to any potential merger.  However way you interpret it, this is still great news for Boeing.

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