American Airlines Group Inc is planning to reduce international flights next summer due to a delay from Boeing Co in delivering new 787 Dreamliners, according to a company memo seen by Reuters.
The no.1 U.S. airline, which expected to benefit from the reopening of transatlantic travel, will not fly to Edinburgh, Shannon in Ireland or Hong Kong next summer, the memo said.
Frequency of flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney will also be reduced.
Transatlantic routes – the most lucrative long-haul market –accounted for up to 17 per cent of 2019 passenger revenues for all the major U.S. carriers.
Deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner, which has faced manufacturing delays, are expected to resume by April 1 at the earliest, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development.
“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 2019,” the carrier’s chief revenue officer said in the memo.
“We deeply regret the impact to our customers as we work through the process to resume deliveries of new 787s,” Boeing said in an e-mailed statement.
The 787 Dreamliner is important for the Chicago-based plane maker’s rebound from the pandemic as well as a safety scandal caused by two fatal crashes.
United Airlines Holdings Inc, another Boeing customer, said “we are working closely with Boeing to understand how the delivery delays may affect our schedule.”
Shares of the Texas-based carrier and Boeing were down more than 1 per cent on Thursday.
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