Couple questions regarding the XLRs. AA has a firm order of 50 with options for more I believe. Set to take delivery of the first one in Q4 of 2024 and with anticipated deliver of at least 5 in 2025. Their primary home will be PHL and JFK.

Questions and speculation - will the bidding on these go senior or jr and how will it work? You can fly a 319 trip one week and than a XLR the next week to Europe with a mix of trips in your monthly schedule? Will it be a 3 pilot crew with the need to block a first class “pod” for crew rest? Is the XLR AA’s true answer to getting back into the international game that UAL and DAL play so well? AA obviously made a mistake with throwing the 75/76 and 330s away so quickly, can the XLR “save the day”? Also is this the future of AA’s international fleet? XLRs and 787s? Will the 777 survive the “long haul”?

 

You could email Brain Z and ask him. He's pretty open to taking respectable worded Q's

Personal opinion only but if they based them in PHL, that would be one of the best bid statuses at the company. I did the 75/76 out of PHL and loved the destinations and flying - a mix of day transcon domestic and europe all in the same month.

 

Regarding the 777 fleet, the -200s are getting old. The 787-9 is a comparable replacement for them. The -300 fleet would be fairly small without them, however until a comparable replacement is ordered I would expect them to stick around. They are also at least a decade newer than the -200s so they have plenty of life left.

 

From the 10/19/23 SEC 10Q filing, 4 XLRs in 2024, then 21 in 2025, and the remaining balance in 2026 and 2027 for a total buy of 65 in a 4 year period. Combined with 20 787-9 in the same period and you can see the short term strategy is to re-build the international network with a mix of 65 XLR and 20 787-9 over the next 4 years.

 

Some markets will be profitable for XLRs, others will not. The biggest difference is cargo. AA Cargo is doing really well right now. Places like London Heathrow do not make money on aircraft from the US that do not have a ton of cargo. JetBlue is losing money on Heathrow flying as a result of no cargo.

The XLR's will have a lot of premium seats. If we can fill them with paying passengers, they will be a great addition for AA. Look for places that we currently do not serve. PHL/JFK to Shannon, Edinburgh, Cologne, etc... Also, some wide body flying doesnt make sense to do it all year on a 777/787, so seasonal routes will play a big part as well. A 787 out of PHL in the busy months, and a 321XLR in the slower months when that 787 is utilized elsewhere.

 

watch the most recent state of the airline on Jetnet, the highlight titled “new aircraft” and the one titled “where will they fly” “. BZ answers some of these exact questions.

 

Cargo is not as important as you are making it out to be. Not trying to be a jerk, but I am trying to quantify, “cargo is doing really well” in that sure relative to 10 years ago it is doing well, but as a money maker, it made less than the interest they earned on our cash on hand. For the 3rd qtr, cargo generated 193M in revenue, out of 13.4B in revenue or 1.4% of total revenue. It’s nice to have, sure, but it accounts for less than 1.5% of quarterly revenue.

 

can’t you just tell us instead

 

rumor I heard is they will be configured similar to Flagship First Transcon config (JFK-SFO market, etc)

 

They already revealed the interior / configuration for both the newly coming XLRs and 787-9s last year.



https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...9/default.aspx


It’s basically the same set up as jetBlue “Mint” (same manufacturer).