American Delays Premium Boeing 787, Flagship Business Suites

I can’t say I’m surprised, but delivery delays at Boeing are causing American Airlines to update its plans, and postpone the introduction of its new business class product.

American faces Boeing 787 delivery delays

While American already has a fleet of 59 Boeing 787s, the airline has an additional 30 of these jets on order. What’s exciting about these aircraft is that the upcoming deliveries are supposed to be ultra-premium Boeing 787s, featuring just 244 seats.

For example, while American’s existing 787-9s have 30 business class seats, these jets will have 51 business class seats. Not only that, but these planes will feature the carrier’s all-new passenger experience, including the new Flagship Business Suites, as well as the front row Flagship Suite Preferred product.

The plan has been for American to take delivery of the first of these jets in the coming months, and launch service with the aircraft between Dallas and Brisbane as of late October 2024.

Unfortunately there’s a negative update here, as reported by Zach Griff, which is that American no longer expects to receive any new Boeing 787s in the coming months. American now has no firm timeline for when these new Dreamliners will enter service. This means that American intends to launch its Dallas to Brisbane service with one of its existing 787s, in a less premium configuration.

Given the length of the flight, this could pose some operational challenges for the route. Dallas to Brisbane will be American’s longest flight, and it’s my understanding that one of the motivations for placing the premium 787 on this route was the lower weight of the aircraft, due to there being fewer seats. So I’m curious if American ends up needing to weight restrict the “heavier” 787.

American will be far from the only carrier impacted by Boeing’s ongoing delivery delays. Arguably there are even bigger implications for Saudi Arabian airline startup Riyadh Air, which plans to launch in 2025, and is entirely dependent on the delivery of new 787s.

When will American Flagship Business Suites enter service?

With these latest delays, it’s anyone’s guess when American’s new Flagship Business Suites will enter service. Initially the plan was for the new premium Boeing 787-9s to feature this product, and then American’s Boeing 777-300ERs would be reconfigured, at the same time that international first class would be eliminated.

The previous timeline we had was that American would start reconfiguring existing 777s around the end of 2024 or early 2025, and there’s no indication of that timeline changing. After all, the delivery delays are with Boeing, and not with the seat manufacturers, at least as of now.

So it’s entirely possible that we’ll see the new Flagship Business Suites debut on a reconfigured 777 ahead of a newly delivered 787. As of now, it’s all up in the air, so only time will tell.

American cuts other routes due to Boeing 787 issues

The delay in deliveries of premium Boeing 787s isn’t just impacting the Dallas to Brisbane route. As flagged by @xJonNYC, American has also announced some significant wide body cuts both for this summer and winter, including frequency cuts, shortened schedules for seasonal flights, and more. Just to give a few examples:

• Dallas (DFW) to Dublin (DUB) and Rome (FCO) was supposed to operate year-round this year, but it will be cut in winter, and brought back in the summer of 2025
• The seasonal Dallas (DFW) to Kona (KOA) flight won’t operate this winter
• Many seasonal routes will be suspended early, with New York (JFK) to Athens and Barcelona (BCN) flights, as well as Chicago (ORD) to Paris (CDG) flights, being suspended as of September 3, 2024

Bottom line

American Airlines’ new premium Boeing 787s are experiencing delivery delays, meaning that the airline no longer expects to fly these new planes as of October 2024. This also means that the new Flagship Business Suites are delayed with their entry into service.

For now we’ll have to mark this as “developing,” as there’s no updated timeline for when these planes could be flying. It’s possible that we’ll see the first 777 reconfigured with the new cabins before these 787s enter service.

What do you make of American’s Boeing 787 delays?