thunderlounge

For some unknown reason, the 772 45J modifications were stopped. They modified one, and have not modified any others. Pretty sure 45J routes won't be selling PE by July, so the short of that is you should be fine either way.

golfingboy

Seems like they have slowed down the 77W installs by 50% with only one plane in the shop. Hopefully this weekend they will go back up to 2 lines and get this done by mid-May.

I suspect the remaining 45J 777s and 788s will be pushed back to the fall given the J cabin modifications that will take place.

econometrics

I also think the delay in remaining 772's and the 788's hints at them being untouched through the summer schedules.

thunderlounge

Wasn't the original schedule supposed to have the 788's start towards the end of Q1, and complete by the end of Q2? Obviously they haven't started yet, and now the 45J 772's are delayed as well.

Interesting that those are the aircraft with the Zodiac seats. Is that a mere coincidence, or is something else afoot?


** Heavy speculation/thinking out loud follows. **

I wonder if maybe they have, or will have shortly, an FAA approved fix for the Zodiac seat? Maybe, although I seriously doubt it, they are dumping them all together? Obviously there are other reasons for the delay, but still odd that it's just the frames with the Zodiac seats that are seeing it as the rest have been on/ahead of schedule.

If it were a fix for the seats, then it may have created enough delay to throw the schedule off just enough to hamper their being ready for summer season. Then again, it could be that they were informed the fix was to be approved soon, thus holding off so they can do all the work at one time instead of having to have each plane in twice. Which could be why there is one plane that was converted; it could be the test candidate for the fix, or they found the fix wasn't good enough, etc.

On the other point, I seriously doubt they would be dumping the Zodiac seats entirely. Although that would streamline their products and eliminate confusion, I really don't see it as something they would do. That speculation is purely based on the cost of replacing the seats, and something they wouldn't necessarily need to spend money on.

Another reason could be availability. Either at the facility or due to upcoming schedule not allowing for planes to be missing for a week. Could be financial, could be who knows. It is what it is though, and should be done by the end of 2018, which is about 6 months behind initially published schedule. (Still curious as to the "why" of it all, as inquiring minds want to know.)

Austin787

The 45J 772s are having J seats removed, to standardize with the 37J 772s. And the 788s are rumored (by a usually reliable source) to have J seats removed when they get PE. Removing J seats also requires moving bulkheads, and likely other changes. Which would take longer than simply replacing 4 Y rows with 3 PE rows. Perhaps AA wants to do these changes after summer season when they have more widebody slack.

golfingboy

JDiver

The slowdown in refitting PE isn’t about the Zodiac seats per se (being modified or replaced - they’re not being replaced) as the 37 seat Zodiac airframes have been promptly refitted. The 45 Zodiac seat airframes are definitely in a slowdown phase, likely after the first refit gave them fits, so to speak. The list offered here by the (unofficial) AA fleet site is useful.

(The 788 has always been the last scheduled aircraft to be refitted.)

777lover

One the earnings call this morning, it was stated, in response to an Analyst question, that PEY wouldn't be complete until April 2019. Has the PEY quietly changed or does this April 2019 date reflect potential domestic PEY or other aircraft entering the fleet to replace existing non-PEY aircraft? It was surprising to hear April 2019 as I was always under the impression that PEY was scheduled to be complete in June 2018.

econometrics

Wow. I think that confirms it then. PE refits will not be completed until April 2019 now.

It's clear that AA has decided to delay the remaining 12 772's and the 788's until the winter '18/'19 schedules... as we suspected here.

In reality, AA has a good thing with the 12 45J 772's, and I bet they thought they could squeeze one more nice summer out of them flying exclusively ex-JFK, LAX and RDU. Those are key biz markets, so the opportunity cost of not having PE on those routes is probably minimal for them.

arc727

I always thought AA's initial PEY installment schedule was a bit ambitious, anyway. At this point, they wait until after the summer season, then by that time they'll have their decision on what will likely be a reduction of J on the 788s to make room for PEY.

econometrics

N724AN going back to DFW tonight to re-enter service with PE installed. Scheduled to operate AA78 to LHR tomorrow (27 April).

I'm guessing N727AN will go to PAE next. She's inbound to DFW from LHR as AA81 right now.

chicago747

Sorry if this was covered upstream, but do PE to J upgrade requests hold more weight than Y to J upgrades? I'm looking at booking a STL-DFW-HNL in PE for my brother and wondering if I wait list with a BXP1 if he would be ahead of Y to J upgrade requests. He currently holds no AA status which probably doesn't help. Anyone have any idea where he'd be prior to 100hr window and also where he'd fall once elite upgrades start? Thanks!

AAExecPlatFlier

golfingboy

You guessed right

N727AN heading up to PAE tomorrow morning. 3 more to go after this one.

econometrics

Looks like they cancelled that flight.

AA50 went out very delayed last night. Some 77W in the flow must have went MX, so they had to put N727AN back into revenue service.