American Airlines flew Airbus A319 registration N823AW from Phoenix to Roswell, New Mexico on Wednesday night to be stored. According to aviation watchdog JonNYC, this aircraft is being returned to its lessor and leaving the fleet, even though American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said last year that they weren’t planning to retire any of their current mainline aircraft.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 2:27 AM
This is lease return— no idea why that one in particular.
Recall during investor day last year Isom said no mainline retirements before 2030 so something changed— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
That was the end of a full day for the Airbus A319, which began in Washington D.C. and included the diversion of a Charlotte to Des Moines flight to Omaha. It appears after finally making it to Des Moines that it was ferried to Phoenix before making its retirement voyage to the desert.
The aircraft was originally delivered to America West Airlines in March 2001, and made the journey with America West management through their takeover of US Airways and then American Airlines. It’s a 24-year old plane that was never given a true American Airlines interior, just new seats and overhead bin doors (not larger overhead bins).
The plane has been through a lot over the years, as JonNYC reminds – including being “kinda trapped by quarantine” in El Salvador at the start of the pandemic.
From my archives, the 800 series: N823AW Airbus A319-132 between flights at San Jose International KSJC in March 2021. #avgeek #planespotting pic.twitter.com/2sspfmGwTV
— Doug Kempf (@dougkempf) November 15, 2022
N823AW/1463 Airbus A319-132 American Airlines pic.twitter.com/JFy1zbtlXw
— Hugo Roberto Cabral Strata (@StrataCabral) July 20, 2023
It’s unclear what motivated this plane’s return in particular, representing a shift from the airline’s prior guidance, but it seems notable to me that American Airlines has also frozen its flight attendant hiring for the summer, cancelling interviews and cancelling on aspiring cabin crew who expected to join the ranks of the carrier. They say they had simply met their planned hiring goals for the year.
They’re protesting enough to avoid the narrative of a problem that they’re arguing they just regularly schedule interviews knowing that they won’t actually keep the appointments. Something appears to be up here.
American Airlines Planes Parked In Tulsa, March 2020
American Airlines has been talking about adding first class seats to its Airbus A319s for years, but put off the prototype for this until the end of 2025 as well. During the day on Friday, American Airlines stock fell below its lowest point reached during the Covid-19 pandemic.
You ask “what has changed?” Really, nothing – they are just lying again.
Retired because it’s an old POC.
Not sure retiring one plane constitutes dishonestly among management, particularly when no reason is known. It’s not one of the earlier builds that are now over 25 years in age.
I thought I read recently that they were getting rid of their entire fleet of these AmWest pieces of junk.
They will soon run into their hull ratio limits on regional scope.
Likely the lease renewal rate was high and/or it was about the have a Heavy (D?) Check and the math wasn’t there. It’s one plane…nothing to see here (yet?) 🙂
Most of AA’s statements/strategies last about a quarter before changing again.
One is an exception; two is a trend.
Probably has to do with the change in the economic outlook as a result of an expected trade war between the US and the rest of the world. Airlines are expecting to see a substantial reduction in activity from previous forecasts.
I’ll agree with @Mikey B on this one.
@ aaway. I agree with Mikey B also. I can’t help but wonder how many readers know what a D Check is.
It might be worthwhile to go into how many planes AA is receiving on a monthly basis to put this one straggler that just seems no worth fixing up into context.
@Robert Gustafson — Your theory is pretty speculative, but if the US economy continues its downturn, we could see more of this. However, this is probably just a one-off.
I still remember by April 2020, peak ‘lockdowns,’ globally, those images of parked aircraft on taxiways, etc. I hope we never see that ever again. Yikes.
@Robert Gustafson – A valid concern. I suspect that we are unlikely to reach that point soon because mothballing jets in numbers not only disrupts schedules and requires furloughing pilots but is not free either. Mothballed planes need to undergo elaborate recertification to carry passengers again. Covid isn’t that far in the past and some people remember United’s gamble that travel would come roaring back when people could travel again. That gamble paid off huge.
The airlines are expecting pain. Except for Kirby, no airline CEO is actually cheering at the prospect of business taking a nosedive.
@Gary… what was his entire statement? because “no retirements planned” does not mean we won’t do it.. it just means as of that moment it’s not happening…. jeesh