32 Years Of History: A Look Back At American Airlines' Boeing 767-200s

In its day, the B767-200ER was a revolutionary aircraft. With a long range and without too many seats to fill, the twinjet could operate many routes that would ordinarily require – in those days – four-engine equipment. The B767 variant fulfilled a similar mission to the A310, which, not coincidentally, materialized around the same time.

American's B767-200s

American utilized some 30 B767-200s (non-ERs) and B767-200ERs, according to ch-aviation.com, along with a further 10 ex-US Airways examples. Registered N301AA, the first arrived in November 1982, while the final ten were 'delivered' in 2013 as a result of the acquisition of US Airways, which was effectively a division within American. Many final examples were initially operated by Piedmont before being used by USAir.

The world's largest airline, American retired its own B767-200ERs eight years ago in 2014. The final revenue-generating flight took off on May 7th of that year. With a scheduled departure time of 23:35, AA30 left Los Angeles bound for New York JFK, arriving the following morning. It was operated by N319AA, delivered to the carrier in November 1985.

American_Airlines_Boeing_767-223ER;_N321AA@ZRH;04.04.1995_(5397291419)

This particular aircraft, N321AA, arrived in American's fleet in April 1986 and was withdrawn in August 2012. Photo: Aero Icarus via Flickr.

Stay aware: Sign up for my weekly new routes newsletter.

What about ex-US aircraft?

The final machines were withdrawn in February 2015. According to OAG, the last service was on February 12th, fittingly – given they were ex-US Airways aircraft – from Charlotte back to Philadelphia, both ex-US hubs. It was a special celebratory flight, with the aircraft in US Airways colors. It wasn't until later in 2015 that the US brand disappeared.

This aircraft is N251AY. Delivered in May 1990, it was withdrawn in February 2015. Photo: Tomás Del Coro via Flickr.

Discover more aviation news.

A long history

American's last scheduled flight brought to an end its 32-year history with the type (33 if you'd like to include US Airways equipment). It was, of course, old and increasingly inefficient equipment, with a very out-of-date hard product. Not surprisingly, it was decided it wasn't worth the investment. Fuel inefficiency and an insufficiently attractive weight-seats ratio meant it couldn't – and wasn't designed to – compete with much newer alternatives.

The end of American's own 'baby widebody' B767s was sealed following the entry into service of the A321, of which a number were three-class Transcontinental variants. American's first A321T arrived in December 2013 and was used from New York JFK to Los Angeles the following month, and JFK-San Francisco in March. These were core markets for American's B767-200ERs.

Los Angeles was vital to American's B767-200ERs. Photo: Scarlet Sappho via Wikimedia.

The last year's flying

Looking at American's own B767-200ERs, they were deployed on three routes in the 12 months to May 2014: overwhelmingly from JFK to Los Angeles, but also JFK to San Francisco and JFK to Miami. OAG shows up to 13 flights daily from JFK in the final year. Exactly nine years ago, on September 9th, 2013, the following operated: