American Airlines To Base Boeing 787 Aircraft In New York

American Airlines will open a new hub for their Boeing 787 Dreamliners in New York sometime in the late Summer of this year. The change isn’t a small one, as the fleet planning division of an airline will take years before considering a new base or expansion. The new base will have significant implications for the airline’s routes in the future.

The airline operates the Boeing 777 exclusively out of New York and the Boeing 787 exclusively out of Philadelphia. The Miami base was also operating exclusively 777s. However, the base now operates both widebody models.

The details

The base is expected to become operational late in the Summer. The initial plan is to base 40 pilots at the new base, with 20 captains and 20 first officers. The staffing makeup hints that the airline will either operate one ultra-long-haul route (which requires four pilots) or two long-haul routes.

Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock

According to JonNYC, pilots who require training on the Dreamliner will begin training in August. In another tweet, the user quoted a PHL Chief Pilots weekly newsletter:

“We will be adding LGA/787/I as a new bid status with approximately 20 Captains and FOs slots opening up. You may want to review CBA 17.R as it relates to new equipment. This new bid status is expected to replace the 777 on certain markets where the 787 is more suitable. I would expect a Far East qualification will be needed to explore the JFKs destinations.”

The conjecture

The base opening coincides with American Airlines preparing to accept the delivery of 30 787-9s, all in an ultra-premium configuration and equipped with an all-new business-class product. The aircraft are well suited to the New York base because of the high premium seat capacity but have a lower overall capacity than the 777.

Photo: Santiparp Wattanaporn | Shutterstock

According to One Mile At A Time, the potential routes for the aircraft out of the new base are as follows:

• To London: this route requires a lot of premium capacity as many business travelers utilize it, making it perfect for the new premium capable 787-9s.
• To Tokyo: the soon-to-be-launched route to Japan relies on a premium product to be competitive, and the 787 is much more economical than the larger 777.
• To Delhi: American Airlines has a payload restriction on this route and, as a result, will likely fly the smaller 787. It will probably be a standard configuration 787 since the economy cabin fills up first.
• Other routes include lower-demand European and transcontinental routes that utilize the small 787-8.

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