American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) has once again lowered its expectations for Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries in 2022.
The carrier’s chief financial officer, Derek Kerr, said the airline now expected delivery of seven 787-8 Dreamliners in 2022, all after the summer season. The remaining six 787-8 will arrive in 2023, with four of the larger 787-9 variant aircraft to be delivered in 2024, rather than late 2023.
American had previously expected 10 787-8 Dreamliners to be delivered in 2022.
“As they’ve [Boeing] said, they will cover the damages that we are incurring for those aircraft to be delayed and deferred,” Kerr confirmed to analysts during a call after the carrier published first quarter results on April 21, 2022.
The comments by American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) came after Reuters reported on April 20, 2022 that Boeing had told airlines deliveries would resume in the second half of 2022.
Deliveries have been halted since May 2021 over manufacturing issues. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also said that it wants final sign-off on each 787 Dreamliner before it is delivered to customers.
When asked about the Reuters report, the FAA told AeroTime that “safety dictates the timeline”.
It added: “The FAA will retain the certificate issuance authority until it is confident that: Boeing’s quality control and manufacturing processes consistently produce 787s that meet FAA design standards; Boeing has a robust plan for the re-work that it must perform on a large volume of new 787s in storage; and Boeing’s delivery processes are stable.”
Ready for summer
American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) said in its first-quarter results statement that demand was very strong, and it expects to post a profit for the second quarter of the year.
In Q1, it made a net loss of $1.6 billion on revenue of $8.9 billion. The quarterly revenue therefore reached 84% of pre-COVID levels.
American said that it saw record sales in March 2022, making it the first month since the onset of the pandemic that total revenue was above 2019 levels.
For the second quarter, American said it expects capacity to be approximately 92-94% of 2019 levels, with revenue 6-8% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Amidst aviation industry staffing shortages that have led to flight cancellations and delays across the world, American said it had taken preparation for the busy summer period. The carrier has 12,000 more team members for this summer, compared to summer 2021.
“We’ve already welcomed more than 600 new pilots this year, exceeding our goal,” new chief executive Robert Isom told analysts on the call.
“We will continue to aggressively recruit, hire and train across all departments to develop the best pipeline of talent in the industry,” Isom added. “We’re ready for the summer, and we have sized the airline for the resources we have available.”