American Boeing 787 Delivery Delays Lead To Summer Route Cuts

American Airlines is scaling back its summer schedule due to delays with new aircraft. Let's go over the details.

American is experiencing Boeing 787 delays

American Airlines already has a large fleet of Boeing 787-9s and the airline has many more on order. The smallest version of the Boeing 787 is called the 787-8 and will be delivered by American.

Boeing has not been able to deliver these planes on time. Apparently there are production flaws, including gaps between panels.

The airline expects to get 10 of the planes in 2022, but only three in the following years. It's anyone's guess when American will actually get them, because these delays seem to be rolling.

Most of the losses incurred from not being able to fly these planes will be covered by the compensation American will receive from Boeing. American states in a memo to employees that the airline still has tremendous confidence in the aircraft and will continue to work with Boeing on their delivery.

American trims summer 2022 long haul routes

The airline is having to make plans based on delayed deliveries as it starts to finalize its summer schedule, which is where long haul flying is most in demand. American is reducing the summer flying schedule. Here are the routes that will be delayed, suspended or reduced.

• Dallas to Tel Aviv (new route, now launching October 31, 2022)
• Dallas to Santiago (existing route, suspended until October 29, 2022)
• Los Angeles to Sydney (existing route, suspended until October 29, 2022)
• Miami to Sao Paulo (existing route, will be reduced to once daily service)
• Seattle to London (existing route, suspended until October 29, 2022)

Most of the routes were not scheduled to be operated by Boeing. The airline won't have enough aircraft so American is having to prioritize long haul routes.

The routes that were scheduled to be operated by the 777s will likely be used on other routes where American hoped to use the new 787-8s.

American was aggressive about retiring its long haul aircraft during the Pandemic. I wonder if American isn't regretting cutting at least some of those planes, given how the Boeing situation has unfolded.

Bottom line

American Airlines won't get all 13 new Boeing 787-8s that were expected this year because of delivery delays. American has reduced its flying schedule in the summer of 2022.

It's anyone's guess how long American will have to make cuts because the issues with the 787 seem to be a rolling delay.

What do you think about American's long haul flight cancelations?