While airlines around the world are slowly returning aircraft to service, much of the world's fleet remains grounded. This includes a portion of the American Airlines Boeing 777 fleet. But how many planes are still grounded, and where are they?

What portion of the fleet is flying?

American Airlines' Boeing 777 fleet is made up of two types of aircraft. The more substantial portion is made of 47 Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Meanwhile, coming in at less than half the size is a fleet of 20 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

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It seems given the current situation that American Airlines favors its fleet of Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. 75% of these aircraft are currently still flying. These aircraft are primarily flying international routes such as Hong Kong and London.

Only a small fraction of the 777-200ER fleet is flying. To be more precise, 15% of these 47 aircraft are flying, with 40 dotted as storage facilities around the country. In total, 67% of the airlines 67 Boeing 777 aircraft are in storage.

Where are the aircraft being stored?

So we've learned what portion of the airline's fleet has been placed into storage. However, where are they being stored? To find this out, we trawled through data from FlightRadar24.com.

American Airlines has sent half of its stored Boeing 777 aircraft to Mobile in Alabama. This airport is also home to Airbus' American final assembly line, where the first American built A220s are currently being built.

25 -200ER aircraft are currently being stored in Mobile. Meanwhile, two jets are being stored at each of Roswell and New York's John F Kennedy Airports. That leaves 16 more aircraft. These are being stored in Tulsa.

Tulsa is the only airport that also houses American Airlines' grounded 777-300ER aircraft. The airline has 11 of the grounded 777-200ER aircraft, and 5 of the -300ERs.

When was the fleet grounded?

The majority of American's fleet of 67 Boeing 777 aircraft were grounded in the space of one week between the 15th and 22nd of March. This was just before Emirates grounded the majority of its Airbus A380 fleet.

As of the 22nd of March, only 35 of the aircraft were still flying based on the dates of their last flights. This further dropped to 25 by the end of March. No further aircraft were grounded until the final two followed in May.

777-200ER Vs. 777-300ER

There are two significant differences between the airline's 777s when comparing American's -200ERs and -300ERs.

The first main difference comes down to passenger numbers. The airline's Boeing 777-200ERs seat 273 passengers across three cabins. There are 37 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 212 economy seats. Meanwhile, the -300ER seats 304 passengers across four cabins. This includes eight first-class seats, 52 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and finally, 216 economy seats.

The other huge difference when it comes to the two types is an age difference. According to Planespotters, the airline's 47 777-200s have an average age of 19.6 years. This drops to just 6.4 years when looking at the airlines 777-300ERs.

When did you last fly on an American Airlines Boeing 777? Let us know your experience in the comments!