American Airlines Delays Boeing Dreamliner Deliveries Up to Four Years

(Bloomberg) -- American Airlines Group Inc. will delay taking 11 Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners that had been scheduled for delivery next year as the planemaker continues to work through production snags.

The shipments had been scheduled to start next January but now won't begin until the fourth quarter, the carrier said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. American will add just four from the order, for the 787-9 version of the wide-body jet, next year. The balance will arrive with others American is set to receive through 2027. The airline also exercised options on 30 of Boeing's 737 Max narrow-body.

The delay comes as some 2022 deliveries to American of the 787-8, a smaller version of the plane, have been pushed back while Boeing addresses “structural nonconformities” and other defects that have cropped up in its supply chain. The change announced Wednesday extends by about one year, to 2027, the delivery schedule for the  787-9's American is set to receive. 

Taking all the Dreamliners that had been slated for 2023 as previously scheduled would have created too much wide-body capacity, a spokesman for American said. Airline travel, particularly on the international routes that wide-bodies primarily are used for, isn't expected to fully recover from effects of the Covid-19 pandemic until around the end of next year.

Boeing has more than 100 Dreamliners stuck in storage after repeatedly pushing back its production schedule. The Chicago-based company is working with regulators on various problems with the marquee twin-aisle aircraft, deliveries of which have been largely halted since October 2020, and has had to compensate airlines for the delays.

American, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, has pared plans for international flying this summer, eliminating some routes, because of continue delays in receiving 13 of the planes.

The airline will buy thirty 737 Max 8 aircraft by converting existing options to firm orders, Wednesday's filing said. Half of those jets will be delivered next year and the rest in 2024.

Boeing fell 1.8% at 10:34 a.m. in New York, while American declined less than 1%.

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