American’s fleet renewal slows substantially this year

Following a massive injection of new aircraft in the four years following its December 2013 emergence from Chapter 11 and merger with US Airways, American Airlines is slowing the pace of its fleet renewal and dialing back spending on aircraft. From 2014-2017, Dallas/Fort Worth-based American added an average of 97 aircraft per year for a total of about 400 new mainline aircraft. In 2018, it will take delivery of just 22 mainline aircraft, allowing it to reduce capital expenditures on new aircraft to $1.8b in 2018 from $4.1b in 2017. Deliveries this year will comprise 16 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and six 787-9s. The carrier will retire 19 of its remaining 45 MD-80s in 2018 and end the year with 951 mainline aircraft in its fleet, a net gain of three aircraft over the 948 aircraft it its fleet at the end of 2017. Looking ahead, American will retire its final 26 MD-80s and all of its remaining 20 Embraer E190s in 2019, exiting those aircraft types from its fleet. It also plans to retire 12 of its 304 737-800s in 2019. It will end 2018 with 20 737 MAX 8s in its fleet and will then take delivery of 20 more MAX 8s in each of 2019 and 2020, giving it 60 by the end of 2020. The carrier is scheduled to take delivery of its first 25 Airbus A321neos in 2019, followed by 25 more A321neo deliveries in 2020. American will retire another 33 737-800s in 2020, so its mainline fleet will not grow over the next three years and is now slated to decline slightly, although CFO Derek Kerr said some minor tweaks are possible. <br/>