Dallas/Fort Worth-based American Airlines has announced that it has firmed options for an additional 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Deliveries of these 30 additional planes will occur in 2023 and 2024 and take the carrier's overall MAX fleet, when deliveries complete, to 130 aircraft. At the same time, American has also worked with Boeing on delays to its 787-9 aircraft.
American Airlines takes 30 more MAX jets
American Airlines has announced that it has agreed to purchase a total of 23 additional 737 MAX 8 aircraft. These 23 aircraft are options that American has exercised. The remaining seven are purchase options in 2022 that the airline intends to convert to firm orders, bringing its order up by an additional 30 aircraft.
Of these 30 aircraft, 15 are expected to arrive in 2023. The other half will arrive in 2024. At the end of the third quarter of 2021, American Airlines outlined its expected delivery schedule of MAX aircraft, excluding these 30 jets. It has no MAX aircraft scheduled to arrive in 2022, though it has 12 scheduled in 2023 and six in 2024. With these options, American will take 27 in 2023 and 21 in 2024.
The airline has not indicated what the official goal of these aircraft will be. There will certainly be opportunities for replacement in the American fleet, particularly with retirements of older Airbus A320s or Boeing 737-800s. However, they can also be growth aircraft and enable American to add new routes or grow schedule depth as appropriate. Given that the planes are not arriving until 2023, American has some time to figure out how it wants these aircraft to be part of its system.
American's Boeing 737 MAX 8s
American Airlines was one of the first airlines to order the Boeing 737 MAX, and it was the first US operator to bring them back into revenue service. The 737 MAX plays an important role in American's fleet. Primarily flying out of Miami, the aircraft can be found on a variety of short- and medium-haul domestic flights, as well as is a key player on operations to Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
The improved fuel efficiency and economics of the MAX 8 make it an attractive aircraft for some of these longer routes that do not quite warrant a widebody. American has been very public in putting the MAX as a large component of its environmental and sustainability goals, while also taking advantage of the bottom-line financial benefits the aircraft offers.
American's MAX 8s seat 172 passengers. This includes room for 16 in recliner-style first class, 30 in extra-legroom economy, and 126 standard economy seats. The MAX 8s offer power outlets and streaming entertainment for all passengers. WiFi is also available for purchase, so customers can stream entertainment, respond to emails, or surf the web.
Agreements to 787-9 delays
American Airlines has also agreed to defer the delivery of certain Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Previously scheduled for delivery in 2023, these 787-9s will be deferred to the fourth quarter of 2023 and continue into 2027. American how has four 787-9s scheduled for delivery in 2023. Note that these deferments represent airline-initiated ones and do not appear related to the pause on Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which are impacting American's 787-8 aircraft.
The Boeing 787-9 is an interesting aircraft. While it is commonly found on long-haul routes throughout the system, such as Philadelphia to London or Miami to São Paulo, it is also the ultra-long-haul workhorse for the airline. The 787-9 is expected to launch American's Seattle to Bangalore service and had previously been anticipated to open up a new Dallas to Auckland flight.
Speaking to Simple Flying in September on an exclusive webinar, American Airlines' Chief Revenue Officer, Vasu Raja, indicated that American Airlines is certainly interested in doing more ultra-long-haul flying. The Boeing 787-9 will be the fleet that unlocks that kind of flying. More markets in India would certainly be an opportunity.
There has been plenty of news around United Airlines' achievements with the Boeing 787-9. In recent years, it has been using the aircraft for many different ultra-long-haul flights, including San Francisco to Singapore and Houston to Sydney. It will launch a new longest route (for its system) when San Francisco to Bangalore finally starts. The thing that made that route possible was improvements to the 787-9 from Boeing.
American Airlines is likely eyeing those changes as well, which could give it some additional lift out of Dallas, in particular, or leverage its and partner coastal hubs like Seattle or New York to open up new nonstop flying. American did not officially provide a reason for the delays of those aircraft. However, it is likely a combination of working with Boeing on that capability while also looking at the overall demand environment and being cautious with deploying new ultra-long-haul routes. These will mainly touch points in Asia and the South Pacific, which have some of the strictest entry restrictions in the world.