JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) has secured four second-hand A321-200s under a dry-lease contract with deliveries due in 2020 to mitigate expected delays with the arrival of its A321-200neo, President and Chief Operating Officer Joanna Geraghty said during a quarterly earnings call.
"We've also identified opportunities to mitigate potential additional aircraft delays and recently signed an agreement to lease used A321 which we expect to begin flying later this year. Our capacity guidance for 2020 assumes that only 11 of our 14 contractual A321neo will be delivered by Airbus in 2020," Geraghty said.
Chief Financial Officer Stephen Priest said that jetBlue remained in contact with Airbus regarding the terms of the deliveries.
"I am obviously not going to get into any details of commercial agreements with Airbus, but I'm pleased, (a) with the dialogue we're having with them, (b) the transparency going forward, and (c) that we have put good mitigant in place should anything change," he said.
The carrier underlined that the deliveries do not impact its planned launch of transatlantic services in 2023.
"We continue to work multiple paths around slots and a number of London area airports were confident that our London plans can work in any number of airports. And we'll update you when we have a bit more information to share," Geraghty added.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, jetBlue Airways currently operates 130 A320-200s, sixty-three A321-200s, six A321neo, and sixty E190s. It has a further seventy-nine A321neo on firm order from Airbus, including thirteen LR variants and thirteen XLRs.
The carrier also has seventy A220-300s on firm order. The aircraft will replace the E190s and are scheduled to start delivering by the end of 2020.
