American Airlines reduces international flights due to Boeing Dreamliners delay

• Boeing plans to compensate the carrier for the delay, the airlines said

• American Airlines, which planned to boost international flying by 89% of 2019 levels, reduced it back to about 80%

American Airlines said on Thursday it will reduce international flying next summer due to delay in delivery of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners.

Boeing plans to compensate the carrier for the delay, the airlines said. Delivery of Dreamliners has been delayed as regulators and the manufacturer review some production flaws.

Many airlines including American and United Airlines are preparing for international travel in summers after a two-year pandemic slump.

American Airlines, which planned to boost international flying by 89% of 2019 levels, reduced it back to about 80%.

“This weekend we will load our summer 2022 long-haul schedule, but it will not have the growth we initially expected,” Vasu Raja, American’s chief revenue officer wrote in a memo to staff. 

“Boeing continues to be unable to deliver the 787s we have on order, including as many as 13 aircraft that were slated to be in our fleet by this winter. Without these widebodies, we simply won’t be able to fly as much internationally as we had planned next summer, or as we did in summer.”

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Raja also said that Boeing plans to compensate American for their “inability to deliver the aircraft.”

Flights discontinuation

The airlines would not serve Edinburgh, Scotland or Shannon, Ireland. Low demand Asia has resulted in discontinuation of service in Hong Kong as well.

American also won’t bring back flights to Prague and Dubrovnik, Croatia. The frequencies of flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney would also be reduced temporarily.

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“We deeply regret the impact to our customers as we work through the process to resume deliveries of new 787s,” Boeing said in a statement.

“We will take the time needed to ensure conformance to our exacting specifications. While this has near-term impacts, we are confident this is the right approach to drive stability and first-time quality across our operations and position the program for the long term.”

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