Canadian manufacturer Bombardier announced Thursday the sale of 40 CRJ900 NexGen aircraft to Delta Air Lines, which could rise to 70 jets if all options are converted to firm orders. The deal is worth between US $1.85 billion to US $3.29 billion. The regional jets will be configured with 76 seats in a two-class cabin and will be operated by Delta Connection carriers to be determined by Delta Air Lines, it said.

"We selected Bombardier's CRJ900 NextGen aircraft specifically because it is proven to be the most cost-efficient jet aircraft in its class for our operations and this regional jet satisfies perfectly the agreement that we have made with our pilots to add 70 more 76-seat jetliners to our fleet," Delta president Ed Bastian said in a statement. Delta Connections already operates the largest fleet of the CRJ series aircraft: 286 CRJ200, 79 CRJ700 and 101 CRJ900 jetliners for a total of 466. Some of them are flown under the banners Pinnacle Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines and SkyWest Airlines.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012