The biggest airline in the world in terms of fleet size, American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) , had to trim the amount of aircraft it operated due to the current pandemic. The Dallas/Fort Worth-based carrier already waved goodbye to five aircraft types and is putting one more into long-term storage.
“As we continue to make refinements to our flying schedule and fleet requirements based on this period of decreased demand, we’ve decided to keep our fleet of 15 Airbus A330-200 aircraft in storage into 2022,” confirmed an American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) spokesperson to AeroTime News.
The A330-200 will temporarily join its bigger brother, the Airbus A330-300, two Boeing jets, the 757-200 and the 767-300ER, the Embraer E190, and the Bombardier CRJ200, as American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) announced the retirement of these fleet types on April 30, 2020.
AA’s spokesperson also indicated that the routes, previously operated by the A330-200, will now be taken over by the Boeing 777 and the 787 Dreamliner. The two Boeing wide-body aircraft would remain the only twin-isles in American Airlines’ (A1G) (AAL) fleet until the Airbus wide-body is returned to service in 2022.
The average age of the carrier’s A330-200s is 8.4 years, indicates planespotters.net data.
On the bright side, the crews and personnel that worked on the stored fleet are set to retain their jobs.
“We’re working closely with our union partners to ensure a smooth transition to other fleet types for pilots, flight attendants and other frontline team members whose main body of work is the A330,” and no bases would be closed down or any employees furloughed as a “result of this extended storage,” added the representative of American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) .
The airline currently has 25 unfilled orders for the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, Boeing’s data shows. American has no Airbus wide-body aircraft on order.