While there are more questions than answers as of now, it seems increasingly likely that American Airlines will place a wide body aircraft order in the near future. However, the airline might not go with the obvious choice.
I’d say we’ve gotten to this point due to a combination of some strategic blunders (retiring the Boeing 757s, Boeing 767s, and Airbus A330s early), along with American’s failed strategy of over-focusing on domestic flying, as part of Vasu Raja’s high conviction El Paso world domination strategy.
Looking at American’s wide body fleet, the airline has 67 Boeing 777s (47 777-200ERs and 20 777-300ERs), along with 70 Boeing 787s (37 787-8s, 33 787-9s). At this point, American’s remaining wide body order book includes just 19 787-9s, so that’s not a whole lot of planes.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
