American Airlines fleet

American Airlines Boeing 777-200ER painted in Oneworld livery, taxiing at Los Angeles International Airport.

American Airlines operated an all-Boeing fleet (including aircraft produced by McDonnell Douglas before it merged with Boeing in 1997), between 2009 when it retired the Airbus A300, and July 23, 2013, when it took delivery of its first A321 aircraft. Apart from over 900 aircraft in service, American Airlines has more than 450 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing on order, replacing its aging MD-80 series, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767-300 jets.^[1]

Current Fleet

All US Airways airframes were transferred to American Airlines on April 8, 2015 when a Single Operating Certificate was awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration.^[2]

American is the largest operator of Airbus A320 family aircraft in the world. They operate the largest fleet of A321 aircraft, and have the second largest A319 fleet, only behind EasyJet.^[3] American operates the fourth largest fleet of Boeing 737 Next Generation family aircraft worldwide (behind Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines), while having the second largest fleet of the Boeing 737-800 variant (the only Next Generation variant used by American), trailing Ryanair.^[4]

The following table represents all American Airlines mainline fleet types and layouts in service (including US Airways airframes) as of April 21, 2015.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Fleet gallery

Special Liveries

In 2015, American is planning to introduce heritage liveries honoring AirCal, Reno Air, and TWA. These liveries will be introduced on repainted 737-800s.^[27][35]

Fleet History

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Former AA 747-100 carrying the Space Shuttle Enterprise

Notes:

• 8 Boeing 377s and seven Lockheed L-049 Constellations served in American Overseas Airways' transatlantic service and were acquired by Pan American World Airways.
• In early 1970 before AA took delivery of its own Boeing 747, the company leased 2 Pan Am 747-121s (N740PA & N743PA). These aircraft were painted in full AA livery, and were operated until early 1971, then returned to Pan Am after AA received its own new 747-123s.
• After American acquired Trans Caribbean in 1971, the company briefly owned TC's fleet of 5 DC-8s (3 -50s & 2 -61s). These aircraft were never operated by AA and were sold to other carriers.
• Most Boeing 747–100s were retired from passenger service in the late 1970s and served as freighters until their final retirement in 1985. Several were retired earlier; NASA acquired one of the early retired aircraft, N905NA, in 1974 and has since used it as a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Early in its NASA career, the aircraft continued to carry the American Airlines tricolor cheatline. A Boeing 747–100 was used in the film Airport 1975, registration number N9675, which was delivered to the carrier in 1971. The aircraft was redressed in the "Columbia Airlines" livery for this film. American flew the aircraft both as a passenger jet and later as a freighter only, under the "American Freighter" titles. The aircraft has been in storage at Roswell, New Mexico, since 2005 under registration number N675UP, in UPS colors, its last operator. This aircraft was scrapped in 2013.
• American briefly operated a Boeing 747-200C freighter N749WA (serial number 20653/line number 237) for 6 months in 1984.^[36]
• American Airlines retired their Airbus A300s in August 2009 after 21 years of service and they are now stored in Roswell. One American A300 was scrapped at Victorville Airport in March 2009, its tail number was N7055A.^[37]
• 21 Boeing 737-100/200/300s and 8 BAe 146 aircraft operated between 1987 and 1992 were acquired with the assets of Air California and primarily operated from AA's hub at San Jose International Airport. 8 737-3A4s that were once operated by American Airlines were purchased by Southwest Airlines and as of 2010, N679AA is the only remaining former Air Cal/AA 737-3A4 in service by Southwest.
• After acquiring TWA, American operated 28 Boeing 717 and 8 MD-81 aircraft between 2001 and 2003. Most of the 717s were sold to AirTran Airways, which have now entered service with Delta Air Lines.^[38]
• American also briefly operated 5 MD-87s and 5 MD-90s acquired through their takeover of Reno Air.^[39]
• American Airlines also operated a small fleet of Convair 440 prop aircraft from the mid-1970s to 1980 in the Caribbean via a wholly owned subsidiary, American Inter-Island Airlines.^[40] Scheduled passenger service was operated between San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Croix until runway improvements were completed at St. Thomas thus permitting a return of American jet service (see American Airlines accidents & incidents, April 27, 1976 American Airlines flight 625). There is a small exhibit commemorating American Inter-Island at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum near Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport.^[41]
• American Airlines was the largest passenger DC-10 operator before retiring them in 2000, operating a total of 55 DC-10-10s and 11 DC-10-30s.

See also

• American Airlines
• US Airways fleet (part of the American Airlines Group)

References