MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

American Airlines downsizes due to lack of aircraft

As Boeing has trouble delivering new 787s, carriers may need to reschedule their flights

American Airlines has been forced to lift a series of routes or frequencies to South America as visions of a Dreamliner future took a turn towards something closer to a nightmare, when Boeing began stalling deliveries of brand new 787s.

“Without these planes we simply will not be able to operate at the level we had planned,” said Vasu Raja, American's chief revenue officer, in an internal company memo which went public through Reuters.

American, like other carriers worldwide, began phasing out its older aircraft at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which grounded most commercial flights and pending the delivery of the newer units that did not happen.

The company received just one aircraft during a brief resumption of deliveries in early 2021, but that was all.

The increase in flights to Europe combined with the lack of aircraft had the airline's management choose one group of destinations over the other and markets such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile will have less servuces as of March 2022.

According to the aviacionline.com website routes will be reduced as follows:

• Dallas / Fort Worth (DFW) - Buenos Aires / Ezeiza (EZE): from 7 to 3 weekly flights
• Dallas / Fort Worth (DFW) - Santiago de Chile (SCL): from 7 to 3 weekly flights.
• Dallas / Fort Worth (DFW) - Sao Paulo / Guarulhos (GRU): one daily flight.
• Miami (MIA) - Buenos Aires / Ezeiza (EZE): from 14 to 10 weekly flights.
• Miami (MIA) - Sao Paulo / Guarulhos (GRU): from three to two daily flights.
• New York (JFK) - Rio de Janeiro (GIG): route lifted as of April 2022.
• New York (JFK) - Sao Paulo / Guarulhos (GRU): one daily flight.

The aviation website has warned, however, that schedules may still change before March 2022.