In June 2019 American ordered 50 Airbus A321XLRs to be delivered between 2023 and 2025, and which are meant to fly to small cities in Europe and to close-in South America. These narrowbody aircraft will have lie flat business class seats and premium economy.
American Airlines Airbus A321
American also has 47 Boeing 787s scheduled to come into their fleet. They ordered 22 Boeing 787-8s that were supposed to start starting in 2020, but Boeing delays have meant they haven’t seen any of these planes yet.
There are 25 larger Boeing 787-9s scheduled to arrive starting in 2023 as well. These get a new cabin, too, and won’t just be a rehash of their current product. There’s been a lot of speculation about the airline’s new business class seat that’s supposed to debut on this plane.
American Airlines Boeing 787-8
American Airlines shared with employees in an internal meeting following Thursday’s quarterly earnings call the status of these deliveries.
- Boeing 787-8s are expected to start coming again in mid-April. This estimate has remained “firm for the last two months” so they’re hoping it won’t change again.
- Deliveries of the Boeing 787-9s are expected to delay as well. These have a “max takeoff weight change” and that may push ou the 2023 delivery stream.
- The Airbus A321XLRs, though, are on target for late 2023/early 2024
New aircraft are always exciting, even when they’re domestic planes with Oasis interiors. But we’re expecting new premium seats, more business class seats, and aircraft that allow flying to more non-stop destinations and more destinations to be served year-round.
Non-stops to “smaller” cities means fewer connections and less pressure on hub-to-hub routes. This is a good thing. Given the XLR’s range and thinking about the westbound leg being the limiting factor, it could service most “smaller” cities in western Europe, as well as Morocco.
New aircraft won’t offset all of the other issues with AA.
There’s not a US-based carrier that doesn’t have issues. Honest issues. But, so many of the complaints I see on the various blogs about any program stem from me-me-me issues. I spend a lot of time in the air and a lot of money — my own money — so I have as much right to complain as anyone else. But, I don’t see any carrier (other than Spirit — ha) being so bad across the board that it is fatal. That being said, if you want to talk about hotels . . .
Why does anyone fly with a legacy carrier unless they have to? Blinded by frequent flyer programs I guess. JetBlue is the way to go whenever possible!
If only the food was better…..
AA can get all the new planes they want, but they are still a crap airline! Good treatment of customers goes a long way to cover old planes. And militant FA’s telling mgmt. what and how they will treat/serve customers will go a long way towards forgetting all about new planes.
For the life of me, why would anyone CHOOSE to fly AA?
SMR says….
I live in EU and I always fly LH. No need to fly Low cost airlines. Would be a lot better when other country’s airlines can fly in U.S. And don’t give canard of govt. subsidies. What was AA living on lately, or every chance they can get.
Are you sure AA has not taken delivery of any new 788s? Are N870AX, N871AY, N872AN, and N873BB not a part of the new order? These have B/E Aero seats installed.
Perhaps if they got new passenger attendants, then new planes.
I’d be very curious to find out if AA would begin flights to Saint Petersburg and/or Moscow from PHL or JFK with an A321XLR. Both destinations are well within the range of the new aircraft and I assume could garner enough demand from around the US to fill seats. I fly to LED quite frequently so I would love it.
I seldom look at this blog for anything accurate. With all the over-done AA bashing and the poor grammar, there’s plenty of misinformation. “there were 20 787-8s that were supposed to start starting….” Good grief. Biased much?