United Likely to Forfeit $91 Million in Deposits for New Aircraft

(Note: This is a guest post submitted by BNET member Jason Breslow. To submit your own post, click here.)

Interesting observation from Laura Mueller over at Flightglobal.com: United Airlines is likely to cancel an outstanding order for 42 Airbus aircraft, a decision that would cost the struggling carrier as much as $91 million in deposits.

The 23 A319s and the 19 A320s are technically still on order. But according to a July filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, “United believes it is highly unlikely that it will take delivery of these aircraft in the future, and therefore believes it will be required to forfeit its $91 million of advance delivery deposits.”

Any cancellation in this case would be welcome news for Boeing, as it would cost rival Airbus as much as $2.2 billion in lost revenue.

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Jason Breslow is a graduate journalism student at Northwestern University, where he covers the transportation industry for the business section of the Medill News Service. Jason’s work can also be found on the student-run business blog, MedillMoneyMavens.