TWA May Buy as Many as 100 Boeing 717s

Trans World Airlines today is expected to announce that it will buy up to 100 Boeing 717s, giving a much-needed boost to the program for the 100-seat jetliner, a Boeing official said.

TWA will order 50 of the Long Beach-built 717s, with options for 50 more, according to the official, who asked not to be named. The value of the deal was estimated at more than $3 billion.

A TWA news conference was scheduled for this morning in St. Louis, where the airline is based. Airline officials could not be reached for comment about the conference topic, but a Boeing official said the airline would probably discuss its fleet plan.

The Seattle Times, citing people familiar with the matter, said TWA also will announce the purchase of 75 of rival Airbus Industrie’s A-318 jets, with options for 75 more. That order would be worth about $2.5 billion, the newspaper said.

A decision by TWA to split an order between two companies would be unusual. Most airlines buy only a few types of aircraft, to cut costs on training and maintenance. As of August, all of TWA’s 186 planes were made by Boeing or McDonnell Douglas, which was acquired by Boeing last year.

TWA already has large orders pending with Boeing and earlier this year placed an order for 24 MD-80s. The Boeing official said the 717s on order would replace TWA’s aging DC-9s fleet.

Such a deal would solidify the future of the short-range 717, initially called the MD-95. The MD-95 is a derivative of the DC-9. This jetliner is the only McDonnell Douglas-developed plane that Boeing will make after 2000.

Seattle-based Boeing plans to discontinue production of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, MD-90 and MD-11 models in early 2000.

Orders for the Boeing 717 have been sparse since AirTran Airways, formerly ValuJet, ordered 50 and took options on 50 in October 1995. Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing has ordered five planes.

Earlier this week, Pembroke Capital, a European leasing company, ordered 10 of the short-haul jets.

The Boeing 717 has been in testing since its roll-out in June. Deliveries to AirTran are scheduled to begin late next year.

In September, Airbus announced a tentative order from International Lease Finance for up to 30 A-318s, a model the European consortium is developing to compete with the 717. However, Airbus has not yet committed to building the plane and would not be able to begin delivery for years.

Boeing has been aggressively marketing its new jetliner and is eyeing other airlines with large fleets of DC-9 planes, including Northwest Airlines and many Latin American carriers.

Boeing has said it needs to make at least 60 of the 717s a year to keep the Long Beach production line running. About 10,000 workers are employed at the McDonnell Douglas commercial jet plant in Long Beach.

Times wire services were used in compiling this report.