JetBlue Airways defers more A321neo(LR) deliveries

JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) has announced in its quarterly earnings release that it has reached an agreement with Airbus concerning the deferral of six A321-200NX(LR)s initially scheduled for delivery in 2021-22. “We have moved over 50% of our A321neo order book out of 2020-2022 to a point in the future, which has delivered the reduction of the sort of USD2 billion-ish of CapEx over those two years. This is purely around deferral of aircraft,” Chief Financial Officer Steve Priest said. According to the delivery schedule shared by the carrier, it currently expects to take three A321-200NX(LR)s in 2021 and a further three in 2022. At the end of the second quarter of 2020, the schedule foresaw deliveries of five units in 2021 and seven in 2022. Besides the A321-200NX(LR)s, the airline plans to take deliveries of two more A321-200Ns in 2020 and five in 2021. JetBlue also intends to take its first A220-300 this year, a further seven in 2021, and eight in 2022. The delivery schedule of A321-200Ns and A220-300s was not affected by the most recent agreement with Airbus. The carrier already deferred a substantial portion of its deliveries from Airbus in the first quarter, reacting to the outbreak of COVID-19. At the end of 2019, it hoped to take a total of fourteen A321neo (in any variant) in 2020 (now reduced to seven for the whole year), seventeen in 2021 (now – eight), and fifteen in 2022 (now – three). “We continue to look forward to bringing both the A321LR and the A220 into the JetBlue fleet, to help execute our network strategy, and rebuild our margins, through their outstanding economics,” Priest said. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, JetBlue Airways has a total of seventy A220-300s, fifty A321-200Ns, thirteen A321-200NX(LRs), and eleven A321-200NX(XLR)s on firm order from Airbus.