There’s an thrilling replace for American Airways’ lengthy haul fleet, as shared by JonNYC (who’s on fairly the roll for the time being…).
American 777-200ERs getting new enterprise class & extra
We not too long ago noticed American introduce all-new cabins for its lengthy haul plane, together with a brand new enterprise class, premium economic system, and economic system. These cabins have to date been put in on newly delivered Boeing 787-9s (designated as 787-9Ps), and we all know American will begin retrofitting Boeing 777-300ERs within the close to future.
Nevertheless, up till now, there was an enormous query mark concerning what would occur with the remainder of American’s lengthy haul fleet, together with retrofitting all plane besides the 777-300ERs. That’s the place the newest replace comes into play. In keeping with JonNYC, main adjustments are coming to the 777-200ER fleet:
- As of the autumn of 2026, American will introduce Viasat Wi-Fi on these planes, changing the prevailing Panasonic system
- After that, American will introduce all-new cabins on these planes, together with the brand new enterprise class seats, premium economic system, and economic system
Particulars past that stay restricted, together with how the structure of those plane will change, and whether or not all 777s will get these cabins, or simply some. American has 47 777-200ERs, that are a median of almost 25 years previous. They had been all delivered between 1999 and 2007.
Let me after all emphasize that this hasn’t formally been introduced, however JonNYC tends to have a fairly good monitor report. 😉
Why I’m type of shocked by this growth
As I discussed earlier, up till this level, American had solely introduced plans to reconfigure its Boeing 777-300ERs with new cabins, along with taking supply of recent 787-9s with these cabins.
So there was no affirmation that 787-8s, 787-9s, and/or 777-200ERs would get the brand new cabins. It could be logical for 787-8s and 787-9s to finally get up to date interiors, since we assume these planes will stick round within the fleet for nicely over a decade.
Nevertheless, the 777-200ER fleet retrofit isn’t essentially one thing I used to be banking on. There was plenty of speak recently about what American’s long run plan can be for this fleet, on condition that the planes are anyplace from 18 to 26 years previous.
There had been rumors that American may take into account ordering 787-10s to finally substitute many of those older planes. So to now hear that these planes are getting new cabins means that the 777-200ERs are staying within the fleet for a few years to come back.
If the retrofit venture begins after 2026, one assumes it’ll take a minimum of a few years to finish, and then you definitely’d need the planes to stay round for a minimum of 5 years (and ideally much more) for the cabin investments to make sense.
So if this all finally ends up being correct, it appears like American has plans to fly these 777-200ERs nicely into the mid-2030s, at an absolute minimal, if not considerably past that. In fact we’ll see if solely a few of these planes get the brand new cabins whereas others are retired, or what.
We’ll mark this as “creating” for now, however I’d take into account it to be a considerably sudden replace, particularly since these planes don’t have dangerous cabins as is.
Backside line
American Airways plans to put money into its enormous Boeing 777-200ER fleet. The planes are anticipated to first get Viasat Wi-Fi in late 2026, after which get cabin upgrades after that. It’s good to see that American has plans to introduce new cabins on extra of its large physique planes, although it’s attention-grabbing that 777-200ERs may get upgraded earlier than current 787-8s and 787-9s.
The truth that 777-200ERs are seemingly sticking round for a few years to come back is a brand new growth as nicely.
What do you make of American’s Boeing 777-200ER retrofit plans?
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