American Airlines retires E190s, B757s, B767s, A330-300s

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has decided to retire four mainline aircraft types - E190s, B757-200s, B767-300(ER)s, and A330-300s - with immediate effect due to depressed travel demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"By removing these fleet types, we avoid significant future maintenance expense, remove complexity from our operations, and bring forward the efficiencies associated with operating fewer aircraft types. These savings include reduced aircraft sparing, reduced parts inventories, and crew scheduling efficiencies," Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said during a quarterly earnings call.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, American Airlines currently owns twenty E190ARs, which are 12.4 years old on average, and seventeen B767-300(ER)s, which are 20.6 years old on average. Both types were originally scheduled to retire by the end of 2020. The thirty-four B757-200s (20.5 years old on average) and nine A330-300s (19.7 years) were due to retire over the next few years.

The airline owned the bulk of the affected aircraft with only five A330-300s on operating leases (four from Carlyle Aviation Partners and one from Altavair).

American inherited the A330s and E190s from US Airways (US, Phoenix Sky Harbor), while the B757s were partly inherited from America West Airlines (HP, Phoenix Sky Harbor).

In addition, the airline will also retire nineteen CRJ200ERs operated on its behalf by subsidiary PSA Airlines (OH, Dayton James M. Cox). The regional capacity provider currently operates thirty-one CRJ200ERs under the American Eagle partnership, including 12 owned by American Airlines and 19 on operating leases.

"These decisions alone will reduce our 2021 fleet count by approximately 100 aircraft versus our prior plans, and we will continue to assess further reductions as we move forward," Chief Executive Doug Parker said.

Kerr added that going forward, the airline will analyse the future of some of its older B737s and A320s, although no firm decisions have been taken so far about further early retirements.

American Airlines does not operate any other variants of the B757 and B767 Families. It will continue to operate A330-200s after the retirement of the -300s. The -200s are a much younger subfleet with an average age of 8.4 years.

The airline said it will focus on "flying more advanced aircraft" with the planned deliveries of A321-200neo (17 already in the fleet and a further 103 on order from Airbus), B737 MAX (24 delivered and 76 outstanding), and B787s (43 delivered and 25 outstanding).

American Airlines recorded a USD676 million non-cash write-down of aircraft and spare parts and USD68 million in write-offs of right-of-use assets and lease return costs associated with the early retirements of its mainline aircraft.

ch aviation