American Airlines just announced they’ll be adding 47 new Boeing 787 aircraft to their fleet. The breakdown will be 22 B787-8s and 25 B787-9s, all equipped with GE’s GEnx-1B engine. When added to their previous Dreamliner order, will bring American to a total of 89 Boeing 787 aircraft once all are delivered, as of currently they have 35 in their fleet.
The new B787-8s begin arriving in 2020 and will replace their Boeing 767’s, which would need a major cabin overhaul if they were to keep these long-term. The new B787-9s begin arriving in 2023 and will be used to eventually replace Airbus A330-300s and B777-200s.
Per American Airlines,
American currently operates a fleet of 35 787s to destinations such as Tokyo, São Paulo and Paris. American will operate 89 787s once all aircraft under its previous order and the order announced today are delivered.
As part of the strategy to simplify its fleet, American agreed with Airbus today to terminate its order for 22 A350s, which was originally placed by US Airways.
US Airways had ordered the A350s, which would have been an important part of their fleet before the merger. However after the merger, adding A350s to their other widebody types would add more complexity to their operation, as well as to pilot training and staffing, and to maintenance, which are some of the main reasons why they’ve made this decision.
When compared to the aircraft they will replace, the 787 will provide the airline with improved fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs, greater range, and an enhanced customer experience.
As part of today’s order, American has also reached an agreement with Boeing to defer the delivery of 40 737 MAX aircraft previously scheduled to arrive between 2020 and 2022. The revised delivery schedule will better align with planned retirements of other narrowbody aircraft.
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Sad actually. The 350 has bigger seats than the 787 (unless airlines follow the original design of 8 across — which basically no one is doing). Sad that a plane designed to fly for 10 or more hours has seats smaller than an old MD80. In this day and age it really doesn’t matter what plane you’re on as airlines make them their own and remove all of the features and make the plane great. I recently flew on a BA A380 in business (yes we know bad BA business is) and it wasn’t much more than a A330 really. The Iberia A330 is far nicer than a BA A380.
Can’t wait to see how small the make the lavs on the 787.