Featured Map for 13 April 2018:
American's 787 Order and Small Widebody Routes

Last week, American Airlines announced an order for 47 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, replacing an order for 22 Airbus A350 aircraft inherited from US Airways. The Boeing order consists of 22 787-8s to replace 24 Boeing 767-300ERs, with deliveries starting in 2020, followed by 25 larger 787-9s starting in 2023, replacing nine Airbus A330-300s and older examples of American's 47 Boeing 777-200ERs. Assuming these new aircraft will have the same seating configuration of the 35 Dreamliners already in American's fleet (20 787-8s and 15 787-9s), here is how the old and new aircraft compare in terms of seats:

Old Type	Seats	New Type	Seats
767-300ER	209 (28C, 181Y)	787-8	226 (28C, 198Y)
A330-300	291 (28C, 263Y)	787-9	285 (30C, 255Y)
777-200ER	273 (37C, 24Y+, 212Y)	+
777-200ER	260 (45C, 215Y)	+

The 777-200ER looks smaller but that's an illusion due to these aircraft having a larger business-class cabin, and in the newer 777-200ER configuration, 24 Premium Economy seats. (The 777-200ERs without Premium Economy are being converted to the 273-seat configuration.) One might expect to see a similar configuration on a subfleet of the new 787-9s.

Today's Featured Map looks at where American uses the A330-300 (red) and 767-300ER (blue). The A330-300 fleet was inherited from US Airways and continues to fly from pre-merger hubs, with six routes from Philadelphia, plus another three from Charlotte including a tag from Phoenix to Honolulu. The larger 767-300ER fleet has always flown for American and is primarily flown from Miami (11 routes), with additional flying from legacy AA hubs at New York (JFK) and Dallas-Fort Worth. American also uses the 767-300ER on four routes from Philadelphia, three to Europe plus one to San Juan.

References and additional information:

• American Airlines
  • American Airlines Expands Boeing 787 Fleet (6 April 2018)
  • Planes
• American's Widebody Plans Crystallize with 787 Order, A350 Cancellation – Cranky Flier (9 April 2018)
• American Airlines Fleet Details and History – Planespotters.net