American Airlines May End Its All-Boeing Widebody Fleet With Up To 65 Airbus Jets—It’s Already Prepping Trump For The Switch

American Airlines is close to deciding on an order for as many as 65 widebody aircraft, with deliveries in the 2030s. The immediate target is its 47 aging Boeing 777-200ERs, but American also needs aircraft for growth and even just to rebuild after retiring too many planes during the pandemic. Chief commercial officer Nat Pieper says the competition between Airbus and Boeing “could go either way.” Boeing receives credit for commonality with American’s existing all-Boeing widebody operation, but Pieper says Airbus can overcome that advantage by being cheaper. He also says American is in the “seventh or eighth inning” of making its decision so we should know what they’re doing soon. My bet remains that they’re going to buy Airbus A330-900s. I’ve been making that prediction since March, before American spoke to being in the market for widebody aircraft. I wrote then that “a long haul aircraft order is now expected, and the Airbus A330-900 seems plausible (for delivery slots)”. I made the case again in June as reports of an order began to surface. More Boeing 787-9s are the obvious alternative. An order divided between A330-900s and 787-9s is plausible as well. Airbus A350s or Boeing 777Xs would genuinely surprise me. Aviation watchdog JonNYC, whose sourcing here is generally good and who has recently correctly called other airline orders, says the result “might be a bit of a surprise.” in the news again, and my personal view is; we might be in for a bit of surprise. https://t.co/Z53mx3rVTl — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 4, 2026 The unsurprising result would be more Boeing 787-9s. American already operates 70 Dreamliners, has another 19 on firm order and holds options for 28 more. Its pilots, maintenance operation, training and spare parts inventory are already built around the aircraft. A surprise would seem to mean Airbus. American Airlines hasn’t ordered Airbus widebodies in nearly 40 years (the ones it flew had been US Airways planes). The last one was 25 Airbus A300s ordered in 1987 (later expanding the fleet to 35, and retired in 2009). And they’ve made a big effort to simply their fleet. Nonetheless, within the Airbus catalog, I believe the A330-900 makes more sense for American than the A350-900. American Needs To Rebuild The Fleet It Chose To Shrink American permanently retired 24 Airbus A330s, 17 Boeing 767s and 34 Boeing 757s at the beginning of the pandemic. That eliminated 75 long haul-capable aircraft which was about 40% of the fleet it could use for international flying. Some of the 757s and 767s were old and expensive. Retiring the A330-300s was defensible. But American made all of those permanent decisions before it knew what the pandemic recovery would look like. Eliminating 15 relatively young A330-200s rather than preserving them for perhaps $100 million for optionality was nuts. United parked planes and waited for more information. American missed much of the 2022–2024 transatlantic boom because it didn’t have the aircraft to respond. And American compounded the problem by deferring 10 Boeing 787-9s that had been scheduled for delivery in 2024 and 2025, pushing them into 2028 and beyond because the later schedule supposedly aligned better with anticipated demand and growth. An order for up to 65 widebodies may include options and purchase rights, so this doesn’t mean 65 firm aircraft or 18 net additions after replacing 47 777-200s. Still, American needs room to grow, not merely one-for-one replacements. The A330-900 Fits The American Network Best The A330-900 is roughly the right size. Airbus advertises 287 to 303 seats in a typical three-class configuration, though American would almost certainly choose a more premium-heavy layout. It could replace a 273-seat 777-200 without forcing American to add a huge amount of capacity to every flight. Its 7,350 nautical miles of range is enough for nearly all of the flying American would want it to do. They fly very little ultra-long haul, and that’s covered by their 787-9s. American doesn’t have a range problem. They have too few aircraft and too few routes where they can profitably fill the largest airplanes. The 787 is a more capable aircraft, but they don’t need the range on all their fleet and where a 787’s economics are better Airbus can compensate with a lower acquisition price, support and potentially more useful delivery positions. Airbus plans to increase A330 production to five aircraft per month by 2029. Both manufacturers have deep backlogs, but Boeing has sold a great deal of future 787 production. The possibility of better A330 slots is why I first identified the aircraft in March. Pieper also knows the airplane. He was Delta’s vice president of fleet strategy and transactions when it selected 25 A330-900s and 25 A350-900s. Delta assigned the A350 to its longest Pacific missions and the A330neo to transatlantic flying and some West Coast – Asia routes. American already has the 787-9 to perform the job Delta gave the A350. It could buy the A330 half of Pieper’s previous solution. And the A330-900 has been in commercial service since 2018. Pieper has specifically said that he prefers airplanes that are already operating, allowing other carriers to work through the early problems. The A330neo is a mature derivative of an airframe airlines have flown for decades. American Spent Years Eliminating Types And Subfleets The strongest argument against the A330-900 isn’t the airplane. It is American’s long drive toward fleet simplification. This started well before the pandemic retirements. In 2018, American canceled an inherited order for 22 Airbus A350s and ordered 47 additional Boeing 787s. Then-chief financial officer Derek Kerr explained that American wanted fewer aircraft types and fewer subfleets, making another widebody type uneconomic. American ditched many sets of different interiors, equipment, maintenance requirements and operating restrictions. Each subgroup can complicate scheduling, require additional spare parts and prevent one aircraft from substituting cleanly for another. They spent years standardizing cabins and equipment as well as eliminating aircraft families. That produced real savings. It also became an ideology. Simplification stops being economical when an airline buys the wrong aircraft for a mission, can’t get delivery slots or gives up useful capacity just before demand returns. American now knows it has a revenue problem more than a cost problem. An A330-900 order would add a new widebody type and a new Rolls-Royce engine to an operation that currently flies only Boeing 777s and 787s. But an order covering perhaps 40, 50 or 65 aircraft is not an orphan subfleet. It’s enough to support training, maintenance and spares. An Airbus Order Now Carries A Political Cost In ordinary times, American would compare the economic packages from Airbus and Boeing and buy the aircraft that produces the best return. These are not ordinary times. President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have made Boeing aircraft sales part of American trade policy. Lutnick used the announcement of a United Kingdom trade agreement to disclose that a British airline would buy $10 billion of Boeing aircraft, alongside tariff relief for British Rolls-Royce engines and parts. The administration has also made imported aircraft themselves a national security issue. In July, Trump accepted Lutnick’s finding that foreign commercial aircraft, engines and parts threaten to impair U.S. national security. The administration didn’t impose immediate aircraft tariffs. It ordered 180 days of negotiations while expressly preserving tariffs and other restrictions as future remedies. An American Airlines order for European-built Airbus A330-900s with British-built Rolls-Royce engines could create problems for the airline beyond the fleet decision. I wonder if American is already buying political fleet insurance. Last week, the airline announced that it will contribute $1,000 to Trump Accounts opened for eligible children of employees, matching the federal government’s $1,000 contribution. I estimated that the program could cost American around $12 million. Then, on September 2, Robert Isom was the only airline chief executive participating in Trump’s Oval Office meeting with travel industry leaders. Isom sat with the president and spoke during the meeting. A divided order between Boeing and Airbus might also provide even more political protection. American could order A330-900s for the missions where they work best while exercising some of its 787-9 options, allowing Trump to tout another Boeing sale and American manufacturing jobs. The Other Airplanes Solve Problems American Doesn’t Have FlightGlobal writes about the competition for this order as though the Airbus choice is the A350 and the Boeing choice is the 787 family. The A350-900 is an excellent airplane. It just makes relatively little sense for American. Airbus advertises 8,600 nautical miles of range and 332 to 352 seats in a typical three-class configuration. American could install a huge premium cabin and fewer total seats, but it would still be buying a larger, more expensive airplane with capability it doesn’t need. American’s premium-heavy 787-9 already handles its longest missions. Where does American need the additional A350 range? CEO Robert Isom has previously questioned whether the larger Boeing 787-10 fits American’s network. The A350-900 is somewhat shorter than the 787-10 and offers much more range, but it presents the same gauge problem while also requiring a new fleet. And the Boeing 777X makes no sense for this order. It is too large to replace 47 Boeing 777-200ERs. American’s network doesn’t have enough routes that can consistently support that much capacity at the revenue required to make an expensive aircraft work. And its capabilities are still untested. American’s 20 Boeing 777-300ERs will eventually need replacement by something of similar size, and perhaps the 777-9 belongs in that discussion. But American is only now installing new interiors in those aircraft, with the refurbishment program running through 2027. My bet is those replacements are part of a later order. More 787-9s could still win. They are the safest operational choice, Boeing’s commonality advantage is real, and American already holds 28 options. If Boeing offers the right price and delivery positions, American may decide there is no reason to complicate the fleet. But American has already deferred some of the 787-9s it ordered, the A330-900 is the aircraft that best fits American’s ordinary long haul missions without buying too much size or range. And a split A330-900 and 787-9 order could satisfy everyone. Topics on this page