American Airlines Inc. has completed the retirement of its Airbus A300 fleet with its last flight touching down at New York’s JFK International Airport shortly after midnight on Monday. The Airbus A300 wide-body jet began flying for American more than 21 years ago after Boeing could not deliver the B767s quickly enough to meet their needs.
American Airlines Inc. has completed the retirement of its Airbus A300 fleet with its last flight touching down at New York’s JFK International Airport shortly after midnight on Monday. The Airbus A300 wide-body jet began flying for American more than 21 years ago after Boeing could not deliver the B767s quickly enough to meet their needs.
American spokesman Tim Smith said a combination of factors led to the decision to take the Airbuses out of American’s fleet. ”One, we are in the process of cutting capacity. Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet,” Smith said Tuesday. In addition, the A300 requires different training and maintenance from the other airplanes in American’s fleet, he said. All told, “it’s a good time to take them out of the fleet,” Smith said.
American ordered an initial 25 Airbus A300s in March 1987, to be leased from Airbus, and accepted delivery in 1988 and 1989. It later bought another 10 that were delivered between 1991 and 1993. One of the leased airplanes crashed shortly after takeoff from JFK in November 2001, leaving American with 34 before it made the decision to ground the Airbus fleet.
The A300 fleet primarily flew out of Miami and New York JFK, plus American’s hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico. American officials announced back in July 2008 that they would park the entire Airbus fleet by the end August 2009 as part of its plans to reduce capacity.
Eventually, American plans to replace the Airbus with the Boeing 787, a new aircraft that has faced substantial delays. American expects to take its first 787 in the second half of 2013.
