UNITED AIRLINES plans to purchase as many as 150 long-range airplanes from Boeing and Airbus, the largest order placed by a major carrier in an otherwise dismal year for aircraft sales. UAL announced yesterday that it intended to buy 25 each of the planemakers' next-generation aircraft: the Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner, pictured above, and Airbus A350-XWB-900. The carrier also holds options to acquire an additional 50 of each plane, both of which are designed to be lighter and more fuel-efficient current wide-body jets. UAL said it would take delivery of the 1st 50 planes between 2016 and 2019, when it plans to start retiring its fleet of Boeing 747 jumbo jets and Boeing 767s. The order is the 1st placed by UAL since 1998, and the 1st major update to its fleet since the late 1980s and early 1990s, when United ordered the Boeing 777s that became a staple of its overseas flying and Airbus A320 narrow-body jets for shorter flights within North America. UAL is obligated to pay $60 million to the planemakers over the next 3 years and a total of $152 million over the next 5 years. "We got the right aircraft and we got the right deal," a United spokesman said. The spokesman went on to say that UAL intended to shop for narrow-body planes, used for shorter flights, in 2010.
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