American Airlines is preparing for a rebound in international travel, two years after the pandemic. However, American Airlines announced that it is scaling back on its planned international schedule for next summer. This decision was triggered by the delayed delivery of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The manufacturer experienced production flaws and is under the scrutiny of federal regulators.
Wall Street Journal reported the incident on Thursday and cited an internal memo. According to the memo, American Airlines will have fewer flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Sydney. Also, American Airlines isn’t going to fly to Hong Kong, Edinburgh or Shannon, Ireland.
Plus, the airline will also not bring back flights to Prague or Dubrovnik, Croatia. And lastly, American is delaying the introduction of routes such as Seattle to Bangalore, India.
Production Issues with the Dreamliners
With production issues, Boeing was only producing two Dreamliners per month in late October missing their initial target of five.
The latest issue involved “areas surrounding passenger and cargo doors on aircraft already under construction”
American Airlines is banking on the Dreamliners as it looks to retire the older Boeing aircraft. Earlier this year, American Airlines received one Dreamliner but was expecting 11 by the end of the year. A Boeing spokesperson issued an apology on Thursday.
Bringing Back International Travel
American was planning to bring back 89% of its 2019 international schedule for next summer. However, after scaling back its schedule, it was trimmed back to around 80%.
Vasu Raja, American Airlines’ chief revenue officer wrote that “This weekend we will load our summer 2022 long-haul schedule, but it will not have the growth we initially expected”. Raja added that “Boeing continues to be unable to deliver the 787s we have on order”.
As Boeing failed to deliver the Dreamliners, the aircraft manufacturer will compensate American Airlines.
Aside from American, United is also potentially dealing with the same problem. United said that it is working with Boeing “to understand how the delivery delays may affect our schedule”.
