American Airlines retired 40% of its long haul planes during the pandemic. They retrenched to becoming primarily a domestic airline, with long haul flying mostly to partner hubs like London Heathrow, Tokyo, and Sydney – plus summer seasonal Europe. While Delta and United have international partnerships, American relies on those more to carry customers around the globe.
And they’ve been allergic to adding large planes that can fly passengers around the globe to their fleet. The airline last ordered widebody aircarft 8 years ago – but they’ve even deferred some of the Boeing 787-9s they ordered at that time.
Brian Znotins, who runs network planning for American, has said he prefers domestic flying over international. He also prefers “adding a second frequency to some destinations, using two of these smaller planes instead of one larger one.”
[T]hat sixth trip from DFW to Indy is what we’re going to be earning a profit on instead of going to some speculative destination in Europe or Asia where you don’t have as many people wanting to go there and we’re not as successful on those routes.
The Airbus A321XLR was supposed to be American’s small ball strategy to fly long haul, but they’ve even cut back that order from 50 to 40 (the plane doesn’t have the originally-promised range).
A great deal has been changing at American Airlines. They no longer see Frontier Airlines (and Spirit) as their primary competitor. They’re trying to reposition themselves as a premium global airline. And for that they need planes.
A couple of months ago I wrote that “a long haul aircraft order is now expected, and the Airbus A330-900 seems plausible (for delivery slots) even though American eliminated Airbus widebodies for simplicity.”
Aviation watchdog JonNYC now says a widebody aircraft order may be in the offing, focued on aircraft types “that are actually flying today” like the Airbus A330 and Boeing 787.
I really have to go back and find my old tweets on this, I totally forgot what I may have tweeted at that time.
Regardless, if I were betting, I'd say that there would be a definite focus on widebodies that are actually flying today, be that Boeing or Airbus.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) June 2, 2026
American Airlines ordered new narrowbody and regional jet aircraft two years ago. I gave readers a nine month heads up that this order was coming.
I wrote last year that there was finally talk of a new widebody order. But I don’t have certainty over what that looks like. CEO Robert Isom has previously said that the 787-10 isn’t a good fit for American. But circumstances change, and the actual deal on the table can change these things, too.
Boeing and Airbus have huge order backlogs. Isom has said that doesn’t matter, American Airlines is an important enough customer that airframe manufacturers will find the planes to sell to them. But my A330 suggestion comes from potential for delivery slots. There would be a certain irony in this, since they gave up all their A330s. But some of those were due for retirement, there’s a different CEO now, and a realization that the previous strategy wasn’t working.
certainly not breaking news.
AA has been on and off about buying new widebodies.
the 339 is readily available and far more economical to operate than the 772s. AA could easily spend a big chunk of the cost refurbushing 777s and still pay 25% more for fuel for 10 more years.
Boeing has a big backlog of 787s and they aren’t deeply discounting. Airbus can price 339s well below the 787 and deliver them sooner.
It just might make sense for AA to buy a large fleet of 330NEOs
AA’s 789s (regular, not 789P) and DL’s 339s have similar number of J, PE, and Y, with total seats being just a few pax off. I believe the 789 costs less to fly, while the 339 costs less to buy. So, why wou.d AA introduce a new type to their fleet? Is it just because they can get it sooner? I’m curious and lack inside information, so feel free to correct anything as necessary (like I really have to invite criticism here).
Tim’s post wasn’t up when I wrote the above. It sounds like he contends the answer to my question is yes. (Just wanted to show I’m not one of those who posts when a question has been answered in replies.)
They have the most extensive network in Latin America and the Caribbean. Last time I checked , that is international.
“becoming primarily a domestic airline, with long haul flying mostly to partner hubs like London Heathrow, Tokyo, and Sydney ”
This is always funny to see written because it really makes anyone wonder how anyone can come to that conclusion. Comparing relative international networks between AA and United is one thing, making that kind of statement above… not true.
I expect to see this kind of comment from the usual people on a.net, but Gary? C’mon now, AA flies to a lot more than partner airports lol
https://www.flightconnections.com/route-map-american-airlines-aa
Why would anyone fly an airline that will bump you from your paid first class to ticket to coach and then only refund you 40% of your ticket price? I dont care what AA offers, ill never trust them to fly again after how they have treated us customers over the past decade.
AA’s wide-body fleet (since ditching 767s) is ironically younger and newer than DL and UA; if they proceeded with 787s or a339s, that’d make it even newer. I’d be pleased to see Airbus return. Wouldn’t trust 779. Too delayed.
@MaxPower that’s not the full quote, you added a period that wasn’t there. (And of course AA has a South America route network as well.)
@MaxPower — AA is still best in Caribbean, especially from MIA. Nearly made it on all their routes when I was bases there. No one else comes close. (Wish they’d actually pull off something in Africa, even if it is just a token Casablanca route; CPT would be ideal, if SA would allow it.)
Blame Parker (Former CEO) for the mess at AA. American was a great airline before the arrival of Parker and his USAIR guys.
There needs to be a CHANGE in Leadership for the Employees to get onboard moving forward.The direction of this Company has really gone south so to speak under Isom and his Leadership Team and how can the Customers get too excited about AA when even the Employees have little good to say about the Airline? Spoke with an Employee that recently retired and He said it was always One step forward, three steps back since what he called “The AWA Clown Show came to Town……constantly making bad decisions that would screw up a One Car Funeral”. As an Exec Plat at the Airline I have never really had any serious issues with my travels but I can usually gauge how a Business Operates based on Employee Interaction and how they feel about their Employer. The recent Pilot Vote of No Confidence in Leadership tells me more than I need to know about what the Employees feel because none of the Labor Groups are currently approaching negotiations of a contract, they just do NOT like Isom and feel he is a total misfit for the CEO position.
It will be a mix of 787-9 and 787-10. There is no way AA is adding A330-900s or A350-900s. Too complex to add a further fleet type for a relatively small number.
American has been brilliant at identifying markets they want to avoid flying to. These markets include NYC, most of the west coast, Europe and Asia. Since they made these brilliant decisions, they have not been a profitable airline. HMMM?
znot rhymes with snot and dfw can’t add 100 additional daily domestic narrow segments without a 6th runway which would require a relocation of the west side cargo facilities (~$3b was the number in 2005, god knows what it is now)
something special in the air needs to do something revolutionary
they are not going to catch ua or dl
the max forkups allowed the 321xlr to take the 797 market so it’s now 10 years away
aa needs to put out a tender for the 744/343 replacement – commit to 100 against future credit card earnings and rally every oneworld member to commit to 10 each for another 100
AA’s international network includes a lot on Latin America served on narrow bodies
No end to the incompetence at the decision-making level. Incredible some clown just wants to fly short haul/domestic routes. Finally, Wall Street is getting off the dime and running up red flags. Way past time for an entire C-Suite house cleaning and some people in charge who know what they are doing!!
What? AA is a domestic carrier with a few int’t destinations to Europe and Asia? AA is the dominant US carrier flying to/from South America. AA flies the following deep South America destinations:
EZE: daily from MIA, DFW, and JFK.
GRU: daily from MIA, DFW and JFK
SCL: daily from MIA and DFW.
MVD: daily from MIA.
All long haul, all widebody.
I think by the time AA decides to stop waffling on it, it will be the Boom Supersonic Overture. 😉
American long haul service are far better than mentioned here by the author . As you know he constantly moan about American. Since when multiple service to Tokyo Haneda / Narita / India / Korea / China / Qatar / New Zealand/ Australia/ all over Europe became irrelevant. They are prominent routes where they thinks that they make money . Author of this article deliberately want AA to start service from his garage to wherever he wants …it doesn’t work that way ..AA is always my first choice from states ….and much much better than UA . This article is done by AA hater .
AA retired the A330s prematurely and is now reversing course to fix the mistake and accelerate the retirement of its gas-guzzling 772 fleet.
American should have ordered a couple of dozen premium-heavy 787-10s years ago; the 339s are the only viable option with a few A338s in the order mix for ultra long thin routes (Airbus can’t give away the latter). Isom is as Isom does.
Flying to South America is important, but it’s not a highly lucrative market. It would be great if South America and Africa had wealthy countries competing in technology, exports and innovation but they don’t compare to Japan, Tawain, Korea, China, Eurozone and India..
@Common Sense — Bahaha! Yeah, I hear they’re gonna finally start testing out that new engine… back in 2021… *facepalm*
@Joe D — Speak for yourself. South America (and Africa) is lucrative, has ample resources, and loads of talented people. Now, if we, say, via our elected officials, scapegoat and vilify those people, that’s another matter, but to suggest it’s worthless to operate an airline to/from there is just plane silly (pun intended.)
(Besides, aren’t all the right-wingers moving to Argentina anyway… just like ole times… *clears throat and spits into the spittoon*)
“with a few A338s in the order mix for ultra long thin routes (Airbus can’t give away the latter).” I can’t see AA go to the 338. The economics are off unless you can get a very good price. But Airbus isn’t dropping the price sufficiently to get orders, because they don’t need to. At least until the 339 backlog shrinks significantly, they’ll have little incentive to make the 338 competitive. Since it holds less people, but sees a relatively small drop in the cost of a flight (i.e., the cost per seat mile on a 338 is much higher that the 339, 787, 350), the only incentive to buy one is a low purchase price. (It would be faster, likely to get a 338 vs. A 787 or 350, but I don’t imagine you’d get a newly ordered 338 before a 339.)
Sounds to me that Brian Zsnotin should look for another job. Seems to be his network strategy has placed American far behind Delta and United.. it’s ridiculous to rely on partner Airlines when American Airlines themselves have the root authority to fly to those foreign destinations.
I’m 6 foot tall and 200 pounds. There’s no way in hell that I would sit in a single aisle craft for a 6 to 8 hour flight across the ocean. In my opinion, American Airlines could benefit from a whole new upper brass CEO included.