And no, this isn’t a positive development.
As of January: “In 2015, the Company expects to take delivery of 74 mainline aircraft including 7 A319 aircraft, 35 A321 aircraft, 18 737-800 aircraft, 2 777-300ER aircraft, and 12 787-8 aircraft. In addition, the Company expects to retire 104 aircraft, including 9 A320 aircraft, 37 757 aircraft, 6 767-200 aircraft, 9 767-300 aircraft and 43 MD80s by the end of 2015.” And “in 2015, the Company expects to increase its regional fleet size by 21 CRJ900 aircraft and 29 E175 aircraft. The Company expects to remove and park 21 ERJ140 aircraft and retire 1 Dash 8-100 aircraft.”
In its update released today, American said that it taking an extra Boeing 787 this year — but also is retiring an additional 4 767-300s, 8 757s, an Airbus A320 and 9 CRJ200 50-seat regional jets by Dec. 31. And then there’s this: “The Company recently amended its delivery agreement with Boeing to defer four 787 aircraft from 2016 to 2017 and one 787 aircraft from 2016 to 2018. In addition, the Company also amended its delivery agreement with Airbus to defer 10 A320neo family aircraft from 2017 and 25 Airbus A320neo family aircraft from 2018 to years 2021 through 2023.”
The company hasn’t released a fleet plan for 2016 yet. The message a of today though is pretty clear: Less flights this fall and through at least 2018 than we had previously expected.
The most interesting element are the additional 767 retirements and deferrals of the 787 that are replacing them. This comes in response to the not-so-great numbers to Europe and South America that the airline has posted so far this year. Fewer widebodies could easily translate to fewer flights from Charlotte to Europe next year. The 767-300s and 787s are American Airlines aircraft; US Airways currently has 24 widebody jets, and they are all Airbus A330s. If after the US Airways brand goes away in October, American continues to use those 24 jets just for flights to Europe from Philly and Charlotte, then the impact here may be relatively minor. If American starts using them from other hubs, it would be a bad sign indeed.
