enviroian

Delta is buying new ones. AA has gotten rid of the 332 and 333's. It's not like they have an issue with using Airbus aircraft. How different really is Delta's network and American's that one chooses this aircraft and another doesn't?

Ishrion

American Airlines has 67 Boeing 777s in its fleet, consisting of 47 -200ERs and 20 -300ERs. Additionally, AA has 40+ Boeing 787s consisting of -8s and -9s.

AA had a smaller widebody Airbus fleet, which consisted of 24 Airbus A330s pre-COVID (15 -200s and 9 -300s).

The A330-300s were set to leave the fleet within the next few years and be replaced by upcoming 787-9s. In contrast, AA had just begun to retrofit the A330-200s with new Economy Class seats and recently finished adding Premium Economy. However, because of the downturn in long-haul/international demand with COVID, AA chose to cut costs and simplify its fleet, which also included the early retirement of all Boeing 757s and 767s. Essentially, instead of operating a complex fleet with numerous aircraft variants, AA will simply focus on two widebody Families - the Boeing 777 and 787 - and two narrowbody Families - the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.

As for Delta, don't forget they had a similar strategy, but it favors Airbus over Boeing. They significantly accelerated the retirement of their 18 Boeing 777s, all of which were retired last year. Delta also announced the gradual phase out of Boeing 767s through 2025. Now their widebody fleet going forward is expected to consist of Airbus A330s, A350s, and Boeing 767s. Both of these airlines will continue to see lower international demand over the next few years, so they chose to remove a portion of their widebody fleet and simplify it.

enviroian

Thanks for a very detailed and informative response!

PHLGovFlyer

Were the A330s leased or owned?

NickRivas

Glad it's gone, the a330 had the ugliest J class seat...and considering they have the 787 and 777 there's no need for the a330

tcdtcd

Weren’t their A330s the old featureless USAir planes? Good riddance if so!

Antarius

Define featureless? Their interiors were older, but they were 1-2-1 up front and had IFE at every seat. They were nicer than the AA NGBC 777s by far

ORDnHKG

The envoy suites on the A330 are the reverse herringbone seats, way better than the zodiac "rockin" chairs on AA's 788 and half of 772. LAA was the one had the featureless 752 and 763 aka no in seat PTV and instead hand out ipads and collect them two hours before landing

UAPremierGuy

I'd take the A330 Business Class seat over the crAAp seats on the 772 or 787-8 (except for the NEW 787-8) any day.

ChurnieEls

The A332s were leased from AerCap (nee ILFC). I think the A333s were owned, but I can't be sure.

I think AA are on record on earnings calls as saying the fleet strategy was to get rid of mini fleets like the A330s, I'm nearly certain they were planning these retirements pre COVID too.

Big loss for the Y PaxEx for sure, you just can't beat 2-4-2 over the Atlantic. Those MCE's on the RHS of the A332s were the best long haul economy seats in the fleet imo.

VFR

I thought the A330 seats seemed quite dated stylistically, and in a few ways lacked the privacy features of the newer seats, but they were the first reverse herringbone seats put in by a US airline.

I'll miss the 2-4-2 layout in economy.

cmd320

US was a pretty bare-bones airline so these aircraft were ordered with pretty basic appointments though I never really understood the weird light faux wood wallpaper they decide to put on the bulkheads in J and on the side tables. That always seemed really out of place on the aircraft and gave the J cabin the feel of a locker room or something.

enviroian

Where did the 330's go? The desert? Scrapped?

Has AA had any interest in the 220's?

D3Kingg

The A330s serving CLT and PHL were ex US Airways. AA is putting 787s on plenty of routes in PHL and CLT moving forward. AA still purchases A321 series. So they use both Boeing end Airbus.

cmd320

Just to clarify, all A330s were pmUS. AA never operated the A330.