United Airlines orders 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliners

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss reports that United Airlines has ordered 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes.

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BRIAN SOZZI: Let's hit a few tickers here to get this day kicking off here. Shares of Boeing and United Airlines in focus this morning following news that United placed an order for 100 of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners with options to purchase 100 more.

And, guys, early this morning we'll have more from this interview, but I talked to United's CEO Scott Kirby, telling me this is a very big deal and also a bet on the future of travel and that future of travel continuing to recover from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- You know, this is a massive deal and not just in the size of the order that's been placed but also what this means for how United-- how many of the other airlines are really reframing or kind of looking across their fleet that they have right now and issuing some of those updates to it through the purchases that they're making. And we've seen that over the course of this year but this one really to cap off a year for Boeing where they've been trying to make sure that, even as they're starting to have some of the production come back online, and particularly for their largest airplanes, they're now also seeing some of these orders that are really going to help them get some of that cash flow to come in to really help sustain with the production of the existing orders that they have and then take them out a couple of years.

At least for United right now, they're expecting to take delivery of about 700 new narrow and widebody aircraft by the end of 2032.

JULIE HYMAN: So you guys have been talking about it through the prism of United, but obviously from Boeing's perspective this is a big deal as well because the company has been trying to claw its way back, really, reputationally, and so this is significant. The move in those Boeing shares is pretty significant this morning as well.

They didn't disclose the monetary value of this, but I did see an estimate from Bloomberg that it could be worth up to $17 billion. So obviously [INAUDIBLE].

BRIAN SOZZI: I was just going to go with expensive. [LAUGHTER]

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. It would be--

BRIAN SOZZI: It's a big deal.

JULIE HYMAN: It would be significant.

BRIAN SOZZI: Kirby also mentioned too-- I asked him if he has confidence in getting these planes on time that you're ordering, and I think he acknowledged or he did acknowledge that supply-chain problems continue, notably with jet engines, so something to keep an eye on.

- Well, here's the other thing too. It's the type of traveler that they're trying to woo right now. Especially if you have a leisure traveler that was, at least for the last year and a half, willing to spend up for a better experience on the flight, you've had some of the moves from airlines to take out that business class and just create-- or first class and just create more business-class experiences.

And so United, they're noting within this that they've continued to upgrade the interiors of their existing fleet. 90% of the carrier's international widebodies now featuring a business-class seat and then additionally that premium-plus seating too.

BRIAN SOZZI: That premium seating I think is now going to come with 13-inch TVs on the back of the seat. That's awesome.

- It's great, yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: That will get me out of my house to take that business meeting. I want to go on the 13-inch TV on the plane in United.