United CEO reportedly kickstarts Airbus talks amid Boeing delays

United Airlines has approached Airbus about buying more A321neo jets to fill a potential void left by the delayed Boeing 737 Max 10, in a trade-off likely to ease deadlock over a long-delayed separate order for larger jets, industry sources said.

United CEO Scott Kirby flew to Toulouse recently to sound out the planemaker on a potential quid-quo-pro deal after a mid-air emergency on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 raised new doubts over certification of the already delayed Max 10, they said.

“United Airlines has been in talks with Airbus about possible alternatives to the Max 10 order. To my knowledge no agreement has been reached,” a person familiar with the discussions said.

Talks are at an early stage and there is no guarantee of a deal, the sources said.

Airbus and United Airlines declined to comment.

Kirby’s previously unreported trip to Toulouse is the latest twist in a widening crisis engulfing Boeing as the planemaker seeks to reassure the public and regulators about production quality and safety while preventing key orders from unraveling.

Kirby last week called the Max 9’s partial grounding “the straw that broke the camel’s back” following certification delays to the Max 10, the largest member of a jet family tarnished by an earlier safety crisis caused by two fatal crashes.

United has not cancelled any of the 277 Max 10 jets it has on order, but it has removed them from internal plans, Kirby told reporters last week, leaving questions over how it would fill the gap at a time when rival Airbus is heavily sold out.

Bloomberg News on Friday reported that Airbus was seeking to buy back A321neo positions from the jet market to be able to construct a proposal should there be an opening.

Trade publication Air Insight reported Airbus and United were in talks.

Any deal between United and Airbus would depend on the scarce availability of the A321neo, which is the most in-demand jet in its category, and the status of United’s contract with Boeing, which is expected to be…