American Airlines Discreetly Decides To Purchase 2 Used Boeing 777-200ERs As Fleet Ages

One of the world's largest carriers, American Airlines has added five more Airbus jets this month, while also committing to purchase two used Boeing 777-200ER this quarter. These latest acquisitions were disclosed in the airline's latest quarterly filings.

As analyzed first by Gary Leff from View From The Wing, these latest commitments to purchase the two widebody jets are off-lease, and the deal is expected to be finalised this quarter. This ultimately means that the airline is purchasing two that the carrier previously leased, and will now add directly to its owned and controlled fleet.

American Airlines Purchases Two Boeing 777-200ER Off Lease

Looking at data from ch-aviation, oneworld carrier American Airlines operates a fleet of 47 777-200ERs, where a number of these are leased, and others purchased outright. They have an average age of 25 years, and at this time the airline is evaluating a larger multi-jet widebody order which will in turn replace these aging airplanes.

American's latest decision to acquire the aircraft off lease will drop the immediate ongoing costs for the aircraft and provide additional fleet flexibility. Given the age, the planes will have been less expensive than brand-new airframes, and for American, this will now remove the ongoing lease rental fee and immediately lower the operating cash expenses for these jets.

With full ownership, the airline will have no monthly check to write to the lessor, and revenue generated will now go directly towards the flight operations, crew, or profit.

47 New Jets Expected In 2027

Next year, American expects to receive a number of its remaining Boeing aircraft purchase commitments, with six additional 787s to join the carrier's fleet. These will be complemented by 27 additional Airbus A320s and 14 Embraer E175 aircraft in 2027. These are part of a wider order backlog, which overall will see a total of 365 new aircraft arrive at American, which also includes the Boeing 737 family of planes.

For the Fort Worth-based carrier, the decision to buy the 25-year-old 777-200ERs is that they are vastly cheaper than acquiring a brand-new 787 or other widebody aircraft, and given long waitlists for both Boeing and Airbus, who are facing production delays, gives the airline permanent ownership of long-haul capable aircraft without the delay from aircraft manufacturers.

Full ownership gives American total freedom to manage the aircraft's cabin configuration without approval, and while the airline may only fly these jets for up to another decade, they will also be able to consider whether they use the planes for parts of other aircraft within the fleet.

Changing The Onboard Experience For American Travelers

With less than 100 new aircraft expected to be delivered in the next two years, the airline is undertaking retrofits to its existing jets, which see the widebody jets being installed with new airline suites and improved premium economy cabins. Narrowbodies, on the other hand, have more First Class and Main Cabin Extra seats, with the reintroduction of seat-back screens beginning in 2028.

American's current fleet accounts for more than 1,030 aircraft, made up of Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies, and a full Boeing widebody fleet. It is the second-largest commercial airline fleet in the world after Chicago-based United Airlines. Full details of the airline's fleet can be viewed in the table below, as per ch-aviation:

As American looks to gain back momentum with improvements to the customer experience, this has led the airline to look from nose to tail at what it can do to make infrastructure investments and improve customer loyalty and inflight offerings. The airline has recently redesigned its mobile app features, expanded free Wi-Fi access across a large portion of its fleet, and also expanded the inflight service with more buy-on-board meal options.