Exclusive: American Airlines to retire more jets, including vintage 737s, in coronavirus downturn

By Tracy Rucinski

CHICAGO (Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc is set to sharply increase the number of jets it is planning to retire beyond its announced plans as it accelerates a fleet transformation to respond to the coronavirus crisis, people familiar with the matter said.

Some 4,700 jets have been parked globally as airlines slash operations due to travel restrictions, according to Ascend by Cirium fleet data, and American’s decision confirms industry speculation that many of those older jets won’t fly again.

In addition to the retirement of 34 Boeing Co 757s and 17 Boeing 767s announced just two weeks ago, American now plans to also sunset a batch of 76 Boeing 737s it acquired between 1999 and 2001, nine Airbus SE A330-300s and 20 Embraer 190s, the people said.

The plans were announced by President Robert Isom in a video Q&A with employees on Sunday, where he said the arrival of new Boeing 737 MAX jets, expected later this year after a prolonged global grounding, could help facilitate the retirement of older jets that would be in need of heavy maintenance.

American is also considering retiring some of its 50-seat regional jets, he said.

American said on March 12 it was accelerating the retirement of its remaining Boeing 757s and 767s as it looks at removing older, less fuel-efficient aircraft from its fleet.

“Decisions beyond the 757 and 767 have yet to be finalized, and we continue to make refinements to our overall fleet plan,” American spokesman Ross Feinstein said.

The pace of aircraft retirements influences an airline’s cost structure since new aircraft are costly to buy but cheaper to run. It also gives a clue to potential future demand for new aircraft.

Some analysts are predicting a surplus of aircraft as a wounded airline industry emerges from the coronavirus lockdown into what many economists expect to be a broad recession.

But decisions by airlines to retire planes in 2020 and 2021 could trim that surplus, Ascend by Cirium consultancy head Rob Morris told an Airline Economics webinar on Friday.

The last two years saw a total of 1,130 retirements, he said. Aircraft demand is influenced by a combination of new production and the rate at which airlines retire older planes.

Airlines’ fleet plans had been structured around expectations that global travel demand would continue to grow this year and beyond, but now analysts do not expect passenger traffic to recover 2019 levels for some time.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Tim Hepher and Nick Zieminski)