On Wednesday JonNYC posted American Airlines internal communications on their fleet plans. This is information that’s contained in public SEC filings, but it’s in a prettier form here.
AA: from late July sometime pic.twitter.com/JBbmT1qL32
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) August 6, 2026
It prompted me to go look at changes to the plan since their March quarter-end filing because insight almost always comes from asking what’s different? It’s a clarifying question in any update meeting, by the way.
| Aircraft | Previous plan | Current plan | What changed | |||
| Airbus A320 family | 15 / 23 / 48 / 75 (161) | 15 / 25 / 36 / 91 (167) | Six options exercised; 2028 down 12 and 2029+ up 16 | |||
| Boeing 737 family | 5 / 0 / 0 / 115 (120) | 0 / 0 / 0 / 115 (115) | Five MAX aircraft delivered in Q2 | |||
| Boeing 787 family | 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 (19) | 0 / 6 / 3 / 10 (19) | No order change; one removed from 2026, three added to 2027 and two removed from 2028 | |||
| Embraer E175 | 17 / 14 / 17 / 30 (78) | 11 / 14 / 17 / 30 (72) | Six delivered in Q2 | |||
| Total | 38 / 40 / 70 / 230 (378) | 26 / 45 / 56 / 246 (373) | Eleven deliveries minus six new Airbus commitments |
The number of planes American planned to take delivery of this year fell by one. In the first half of the year they received 22 new aircraft and now have 26 remaining that they expect to arrive. The one-aircraft reduction is a Boeing 787 that appears to have slipped to 2027.
The total number of Boeing 787 commitments remain the same at 19. One 2026 delivery moves to 2027, and two 2028 aircraft were pulled forward to 2027. That doesn’t look like a desire to reduce widebodies (which has been a real knock of American in the past, and they confirmed in June they’re shopping for more widebodies but this didn’t come up in last month’s earnings call).
Airbus commitments increased, but the schedule moved later. American exercised six Airbus A320-family options in July, but deliveries shifted away from 2028 toward 2029 and beyond.
Aircraft-and-engine commitments declined by $873 million in 2028 but increased by $953 million in 2029. Total remaining commitments actually rose $269 million, to $24.324 billion, despite the Q2 deliveries.
The shifting out of Airbus narrowbody deliveries seems like it’s an attempt to moderate capital expenditures, which makes sense given the airline’s lack of profits and high fuel costs. It may tier better to their current thinking on timing needed for replacement aircraft as well (that some older planes are staying in the fleet longer, potentially not great in an environment of high fuel).
While the Boeing 737 MAX 7 has just been certified but the MAX 10 is still in process. Boeing still says they’ll start delivering these planes next year.
I believe that 85 of American’s 115 Boeing narrowbodies on order are for MAX 10 aircraft (although these could presumably be swapped to other variants), and the other 30 are conversions of earlier MAX 8 orders. They’re all in the 2029 and beyond bucket, and Airbus options may be insurance against the MAX 10.
Oh, Jon updated his profile pic! Huh!
AA really seems boxed-in
Interesting insights into how complex airline fleet planning can be. I think many passengers only notice routes and ticket prices, but decisions about aircraft deliveries and fleet composition have a huge impact on the future travel experience. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect American Airlines’ international growth and premium offerings over the next few years.
Looking at this more wide bodies next year to fill in while other are being refit makes sense and may allow for some minor international expansion. The XLR will drive the transcon and international growth with JFK and PHL getting more destination and growth for seasonal flights to move to year round and maybe some competitive destination getting service on AA (JFK to Frankfort or Munich – restart or Rome year round?). Also, can feed JFK and eventually LAX with more point to point traffic from major US business markets (already seeing it slowly change at JFK and LAX will happen when 4/5 are finished). I hope the next step is to exercise the 787 options and add more (can pick up slots from failing airlines (Bamboo) on the cheap). Overall, more balanced, for an airline breaking even moving to recover and similar to what DL has done.
UA is headed down a bad path with the 100’s of 787 / 737 on order as their balance sheet will take a serious hit when it’s time to pay for them all. Looking in my crystal ball, they might look like AA in 5 years and AA will look to be turning profits (although still less then DL. . .I honestly think they have a printing press 🙂 ).
I dodn’t know they still flew the ERJ145. Wish that would go away. Yeah, you get the nuce 1-2 seating throughou, just like F in the other RJs. But with no F section, how are others to know I their better? 😉