FILE PHOTO: A member of a ground crew walks past American Airlines planes parked at the gate during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2020.
REUTERS: American Airlines Group Inc has threatened to cancel some of its orders for Boeing Co’s grounded 737 MAX jets unless the planemaker helps secure funding for them, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
American Airlines has struggled to secure financing for 17 jets it had expected Boeing to deliver this year due to the coronavirus crisis, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Boeing has been working to help line up financing for American’s 737 MAX jets, and under one possible scenario, the planemaker’s financing arm could purchase the aircraft and lease them to American, eventually selling the planes and the payment stream to leasing companies, according to the report.
American currently has a total of 76 737 MAXs on order. The company declined to comment on the report.
