American Airlines is scrapping several of its international routes, including its longest scheduled flight, for now because of a shortage of suitable planes to fly the routes. Despite the world’s largest passenger fleet, AA has been caught short by delays in delivery of 13 Boeing 787s it expected to be flying this year.
Last year, every airline had too many planes, and was parking them in storage or scrapping them like crazy—no one was flying and it was an opportunity to clear out less-efficient planes.
Flash forward to now, with air traffic reaching near-normal proportions in domestic flying and returning steadily on international routes, and some airlines are getting caught with their pants…ooops!… planes down.
For some, it’s a matter of reactivating planes they hadn’t planned to, including a number of airlines that have found they’re not quite ready to say goodbye to their last A380s and 747s, but for those like American who were waiting on new planes to fill the gaps, delivery delays at Boeing are proving costly.
Among American’s cuts:
- DFW to Hong Kong, its longest flight; not flown during the pandemic and won’t resume until more planes are delivered
- Edinburgh, Scotland and Shannon, Ireland; their return has been canceled
- Summer service to Prague and Dubrovnik: no return this summer
- Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney will continue, but fewer flights per week
- Seattle to Bangalore and DFW to Tel Aviv are on delay
