Fleet Analysis: The oldest jets at American Airlines
Having one of the largest fleets of aircraft in the world, it wouldn’t be a surprise if American Airlines was operating some old aircraft. And so while the airline continues to take delivery of new Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Airbus A321neos, let’s take a look at the oldest widebody and narrowbody jets still flying at American.
The oldest narrowbodies
When it comes to the oldest narrowbodies still flying with American Airlines, these have to be a handful of the carrier’s Airbus A320-200s, as well as about nine A319-100s. All of these aircraft are about 24 years or older, with the very oldest aircraft being an A320-200 registered N647AW, which is 24.9 years of age at the time of this article’s publication.
All of these A320s and A319s have registration numbers ending in UW and AW, which tells us that the aircraft came from US Airways, which was bought by American in 2013. The aircraft ending with AW were originally delivered to America West Airlines, which merged with US Airways in 2005.
Unrelated to the A319s added through airline mergers, American ordered a number of A319s in 2011 as part of its “fleet transformation plan.” Indeed, Airways Magazine notes that the A319s that the carrier ordered were intended to expedite the retirement of the aging 757 and MD-80 fleets.
The oldest widebodies
When it comes to the oldest widebodies operated by American, we only need to look at the Boeing 777-200ER fleet, whose average age is 22 years. The very oldest of these jets is the 23.9-year-old 777 registered N770AN, which was delivered directly from Boeing in January 1999.
While many of the jets are getting close to 25 years of age, their cabins aren’t nearly as old. Indeed, these aircraft all had their cabins refurbished as recently as 2018. Now, their configurations see 37 seats in business class, 24 in premium economy, and 212 in economy.
According to a Boeing statement on this early American Airlines order, the carrier ordered these jets in November 1996. This order was said by Boeing to have solidified “a long-term working relationship between the two companies.”
What could replace these aging aircraft?
When it comes to modernizing American’s narrowbody fleet, the airline has over 80 Boeing 737 MAX 8s yet to be delivered. These will be suitable replacements for the A320s. However, it doesn’t look like the airline has a direct replacement for the smaller A319s. The A319neo would obviously be a perfect one-for-one replacement, but American hasn’t signaled much interest in this rather unpopular neo variant. On the other hand, with the airline also being a huge Boeing 737 operator, the MAX 7 would also be a good fit. There’s also the third option, which would see the carrier simply opt not to operate aircraft of this size.
When it comes to eventually replacing the 777-200ERs, the 787-9s do a fairly good job with a comparable capacity with a slightly better range. At present, the carrier has 30 787-9s yet to be delivered. The 777-8 would be a great fit considering it’s meant to be a direct replacement for the 777-200. However, a passenger variant may not be available for at least a few more years as Boeing prioritizes other projects. simpleflying.com