American Airlines Retires Four Plane Types Early Due To Coronavirus

With air travel dropping off by over 90% over the past two months, airlines have had to park an incredible number of aircraft. The pandemic and associated panic have been in full force, and many air routes have been canceled, not to mention travel restricted into many countries. States such as Hawaii within the U.S. have even enacted quarantine measures on travelers arriving from within a country.

All of this has thrown airlines into disarray. Typically, airlines are methodical about planning new routes, adding new service, and retiring aircraft, often planning months to years in advance. Well, the current crisis has sped up retirement plans for many airlines and aircraft. It looks like there are multiple aircraft types that will not be returning to American’s fleet.

American Airlines Planes That Will Not Be Returning to Service

American Airlines had been planning to retire a number of aircraft over the next few years, but now it is sending some of its fleet into an early retirement. Specifically, American’s 757s, 767s, E190s, and A330-300s will not be returning to service. Their CEO has stated that the airline will “have to be smaller” to recover.

.@AmericanAir has officially announced the retirement of its E190, 757, 767, and A330-300 fleets. They will not return to AA post-pandemic. pic.twitter.com/iLP0Ch0lWT

— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) April 30, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

This has to be a tough pill to swallow for the world’s largest airline (based on fleet size). The fact that American Airlines posted a $2.2 billion loss for the first quarter of 2020 does put things into perspective, though. They need to take drastic measures to survive, even after receiving massive government bailouts.

I’m Always Saddened By Retirements

Even thought I’m not a huge fan of the Boeing 767, at least in term of passenger comfort, it still saddens me to see so many aircraft retired early. The 767 is an icon in commercial aviation, most notably as the first jet to be certified for ETOPS. The Boeing 767 has been a staple of transatlantic flight for decades, although it has been relegated to smaller cities these days.

Although I can say that my one flight in American Airlines 767 business class wasn’t a stellar experience flying back to the U.S. from Uruguay.  Currently, it looks like American will be moving an 787 to operate the particular Miami-Montevideo route that I flew, although I would not be surprised if this service eventually ends up being operated by a narrow-body Airbus A321XLR some of the time. Nonetheless, it’s sad that the Boeing 767 will be phased out early. I’m saddened by any aircraft retirement.

I guess there is one caveat. I’d throw a party if airlines decided to retire their CRJs, especially the infamous CRJ-200.

Conclusion

It’s not just American, though. Other airlines will be speeding up fleet retirements. Lufthansa has also grounded a bunch of planes as well, and it is unlikely that all of their wide-body aircraft types enter back into service. I wrote about how I may have missed my opportunity to fly on an Airbus A340. We’ll just have to wait and see what takes to the skies again once travel begins to open back up.