JonNYC

E190's being retried by 2019

also (and no idea if this part is old news):
Airbus A330-300
"These nine aircraft will be retired in 2017-2018."

FWAAA

Not unexpected that the A333s will be retired - they're older, not as fuel efficient, are very short-ranged compared to newer A333s, and with just nine of them, it simply doesn't make sense to keep them. AA has no shortage of widebody planes already on the property and on order.

Back when US ordered the A350s, I assumed that they would replace the A333s. US didn't need 22 growth aircraft when it ordered the A350.

JonNYC

Makes perfect sense, thanks!

JonNYC

Also:

pauleeepaul

Seems like yesterday these jungle jets were the next big thing, so as to allow more frequent service on more routes. But as I think about it that was 15-20 years ago, during the heady 1990s when oil was under $30 and before technology got to the point where physical presence isn't as necessary to be effective in business (same thing did in the Concorde.)

God I am getting old .

FlyerTalker688786

They could have used these birds on DFW/PHX/CLT to HNL runs! That would make the travel experience to HNL to the next level!

AtlanticX

Whenever I check out the American Airlines fleet and subtypes (https://www.planespotters.net/airline/American-Airlines), I almost always get a headache just thinking about the logistics of handling such a diverse fleet.

As a server administrator, I know how much overhead this kind of complexity of the operation costs, while the increased profitability of having "the exact right tool for the job" is usually only marginal vs. 'adequate tool for the job'.

LCC's like Ryanair and Southwest know what they're doing with their single-type operations.

American will want to standardize and simplify their fleet line-up too.

3Cforme

When Ryanair and Southwest serve six continents we can talk. Even domestically, count the airports served by AA and AA Eagle vs. fewer than 100 destinations systemwide by Southwest.

airplanegod

Read the letter, the A330-300's will be starting retirement in 2017 and will be done by late 2018, the E190's will be retired by the end of 2019. American Shuttle will be remaining but no idea yet on what aircraft will be used, or if there would be another aircraft order down the line. They also announced accelerated retirements of the 767-300, leaving 17 of the youngest ones in 2018.

The note I found interesting was nothing was said about the 757's. I know the domestic ones are being retired at the moment but nothing yet on the international ones, maybe they want to look at the A321LR first?

AtlanticX

Oh yeah, I'm not suggesting that American should revert to just one type. Just that they definitely might want to simplify their line-up, for the same reasons that LCC's choose not to operate different planes.

For a large airline, a streamlined fleet could look something like this:
Regional: Type X
Medium-haul: Type Y
Long-haul/International: Type Z

One oddity about American right now, is that they've got the A320, B737 and MD80 in serious numbers, all three aircraft having a very similar profile. Admittedly, the MD80 is the odd duck and on the way out. But still, that means right now that they gotta keep up with FAA notices and organise maintenance and parts for all 3 types, while an airline that only has either the A320 or B737, only needs to keep parts for one type in stock, and only keep maintenace engineers trained for one type available.

FWAAA

Sure, AA could have done that, but wouldn't it be easier to just incinerate a pile of money? Same result on the bottom line.

Not to worry - Delta has rarely seen a used airplane it didn't like; DL's accountants are probably sharpening their pencils in preparation for a bid for these fine used airplanes.

wrp96

True dat.

captaink

IT Data center operations don't have the unique inventory management or scalability issues that Airlines do. Operating costs for a data center are such that unused cycles/storage/rackspace have negligible cost, but each unused airline seat represents a fairly large hit to the flight's profitability.

There is a fair bit of fleet/configuration rationalization under way/on the way, but the benefits of minimizing fleet types/configs is a bit overblown, especially for the Big 3 carriers. LCCs that only serve larger cities with 1-2000 mile stage lengths can get away with fewer types because 1) they aren't flying across the oceans and 2) they largely operate single-class service.

Circa 2006, AA had M80/737/757/767/777, each with one configuration. The upside was they could swap tails without any change in seat counts. The downside was that they were losing a ton of money flying the wrong plane for a given route- the LAA 777-200 config is a prime example- good for premium-heavy LHR, NRT, and S. America routes, but terrible to anywhere else.

captaink

How do operating costs for these A330s compare to the late-build 763s AA is keeping around for Hawaii? Same number of F seats, but another 60-70 economy seats seems like a winner for Inland US-HNL/OGG, and DL/UA don't seem to be losing their shirts operating widebodies from their central/eastern hubs.

ashill

That's just the history of a fleet transition from MD80s to 737 at LAA, the merger with an airline with a different fleet, and the inability of Boeing to meet AA's demand by itself when they put in a very large order. The cost to standardize on a single narrowbody fleet type seems like it would be much higher than the cost of maintaining the three fleets (MD80s, 737 family, and A320 family, each of which remain very large at AA, which significantly reduces the overhead to maintaining separate fleets). It's not like AA can just trade in the A320s they have for 737s. Even if they were willing to put out an enormous amount of money, there aren't that many 737s available on the market, and Boeing can't build them that quickly.

Well, the E175s still seem like the next big thing; lots of airlines, including AA, are still ordering more of them. It just illustrates that 90 passengers isn't enough to spread out mainline pilot salaries. The E190/E175 is the only case I can think of in which the stretch version is proving much less popular than the shorter version, and I think it's entirely because E175s can be flown with near-minimum wage regional pilots while E190s require mainline pilots with typical industry labor contracts.