American Airlines fleet

Airbus A319 about to land at Toronto

Airbus A321 at Los Angeles International Airport with another A321, a Boeing 777, a Boeing 737 and a Boeing 757 of the airline in the background

Airbus A330-300 on approach to land at Madrid

Boeing 757-200 at London's Heathrow Airport

Boeing 777-200ER just after taking off from Shanghai Pudong Airport

Boeing 787-8 on approach to land at Tokyo Narita Airport

Embraer 190 just after landing at Ronald Reagan National in Washington, DC

McDonnell Douglas MD-83 in older livery

Boeing 737-800 in special Astrojet retro livery, about to land at Miami in 2016.

Boeing 737-800 in special Air Cal heritage paint scheme at Miami

Boeing 767-300ER painted in Oneworld livery at Barcelona

American Airlines primarily operates a mix of Airbus and Boeing (including McDonnell Douglas) narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, as well as one narrow-body variant from Embraer. American is currently in the process of the largest fleet renewal in its history, with over 300 aircraft on order from Airbus and Boeing.^[1] American Airlines also announced a new livery to be painted on all aircraft. American Airlines expects to be done repainting all aircraft by the end of 2017, and has repainted a majority of its widebody aircraft.^[2]

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.^[3]

American is the largest operator of Airbus A320 family aircraft in the world.^{[4][n 1]} It operates the largest fleet of A321 aircraft, and has the second largest A319 fleet, only behind easyJet.^[4] American also 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.^[5]

The following table represents all American Airlines mainline fleet types and layouts in service (including US Airways airframes) as of November 2016.^[6][7]

"W" class is Premium Economy that is offered for selected international wide body routes. "MCE" class is Main Cabin Extra that is offered for selected domestic narrow body routes.

Special liveries

Fleet history

Notes:

• Eight 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 two Pan Am 747-121s. 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 Airways (TCA) in 1971, the company briefly owned TCA's fleet of five Douglas DC-8s (three -50s & two -61s).^[43] These aircraft were never operated by AA and were sold to other carriers. American continued to operate Boeing 727-200 aircraft that were previously flown by TCA.
• American operated a small fleet of five Convair 440 prop aircraft from the mid-1970s to 1980 in the Caribbean via a wholly owned subsidiary, American Inter-Island Airlines.^[44] 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 following the crash of a Boeing 727-100 operating as American Airlines Flight 625 at St. Thomas (STX) on April 27, 1976. There is a small exhibit commemorating American Inter-Island at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum near Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport.^[45]
• Most Boeing 747–100 wide body aircraft were retired from passenger service in the late 1970s and served as freighters until their final retirement in 1985. Several were retired earlier with NASA acquiring one of the early retired aircraft in 1974 and then modifying it as a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) in order to transport Space Shuttle Orbiter Vehicles. Early in its NASA career, the aircraft, N905NA, continued to carry the American Airlines tricolor cheatline before eventually being repainted.
• American briefly operated a Boeing 747-200C freighter for six months in 1984.^[46]
• Twenty-one Boeing 737-100/200/300s and eight British Aerospace BAe 146-200 aircraft that were operated between 1987 and 1992 were acquired with the assets of AirCal and primarily operated from AA's hub at San Jose International Airport.
• American briefly operated five McDonnell Douglas MD-87s and five MD-90s acquired through its takeover of Reno Air.^[47]
• American Airlines was the largest passenger McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operator before retiring this wide body type in 2000, operating a total of 55 DC-10-10s and 11 DC-10-30s.^[48]
• After acquiring Trans World Airlines (TWA), American operated 28 Boeing 717-200 and 8 McDonnell Douglas MD-81 aircraft between 2001 and 2003. American sold off TWA's fleet of Boeing 757-200s and Boeing 767-300ERs.^[49]
• American Airlines retired its Airbus A300-600R wide body aircraft in August 2009 after 21 years of service. Afterwards, American was an exclusive Boeing operator (including McDonnell Douglas aircraft, due to its merger with Boeing in 1997) until 2013, when it took delivery of its first Airbus A319.
• Aircraft that were acquired through the merger with US Airways that weren't previously operated by American included the Airbus A320, A330-200, A330-300, and the Embraer 190.

Notes

References