American Airlines’ Shortest Widebody Routes This Summer

Domestically across the United States, various aircraft operate routes that are dependent on demand. It could be a turboprop, jet, or narrowbody to widebody airplane. On high-demand routes, it’s common to see multiple daily services. Where times are busy, airlines will look to their widebody aircraft availability to deploy on domestic routes to get more people from A to B.

Common widebody routes across the United States frequently involve connecting hubs and large cities, as well as relocating aircraft. Examples include Miami to Charlotte, Chicago to Dallas and Philadelphia to Miami.

Photo: Jarek Kilian | Shutterstock

Recently, American Airlines hit the headlines at Simple Flying for removing its widebodies from its Los Angeles to Miami routing, citing financial reasons. The Fort Worth, Texas-based US legacy carrier has long operated twin-aisle aircraft between the two east—and west-coast hubs. For years, the airline primarily utilized Boeing 767-300s on the route, but more recently, it has deployed the 777s and 787 Dreamliners. Read more about it here.

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Flagship Flop: American Airlines Executive Explains Why It’s Removing Widebody Aircraft Between Miami & Los Angeles

The carrier reportedly “almost always loses money” when operating the Boeing 777 or 787 Dreamliner on domestic routes.

While many think that the chance of traveling on a widebody aircraft means you’re traveling internationally, Simple Flying, with the help of data from Cirium, an online aviation analytics company, analyzed the data to see where American Airlines’ shortest widebody routes for June, July, and August. Spoiler alert: Miami to Charlotte easily took the crown.

June

With a daily rotation, Miami to Charlotte was easily the shortest widebody rotation for American Airlines across this analysis. The route is served daily and adds 8,190 seats each month. The distance between the two centers is just 651 miles, and it offers 273 seats for each flight. The available seat miles on the route are 5,331,690.

Check out the table for the top five:

Photo: EQRoy | Shutterstock

July

Heading into summer, Miami and Charlotte remain firm at the top of the list. The route, which has only a fraction more seats across the month given that July has 31 days, is the major difference we see at the top. Available seats per mile for July between MIA and CLT are 5,509,413. The top five for July are outlined below:

As identified, Phoenix joins the list with an almost daily rotation between Arizona and Texas. At the same time, a single scheduled service between Miami and New York is set to ferry passengers between Florida and New York.

When we look at the most frequented ‘short’ routes with the 777 and 787 domestically across the United States, it is seen in July, when Miami and Los Angeles direct to Dallas have up to two daily. These figures are excluded in the table above; however, they are worth a notable mention:

• Miami to Dallas/Fort Worth – 1,121 miles as the crow flies, offering 17,618,757 available seat miles
• Los Angeles to Dallas/Forth Worth – 1,235 miles as the crow flies, offering 19,617,975 available seat miles

August

As summer nears the end, American Airlines will continue to operate multiple daily services across the continent with widebody aircraft. It remains evident that the trunkline routes remain; however, as you will see in the table below, frequencies between some ports start to dwindle:

A large fleet

1,003 and growing

According to data from ch-Aviation, an online airline fleet database, American Airlines currently has an extensive fleet of 1,003 aircraft, with another 334 on order. Of these, 125 are widebody aircraft, including the Boeing 777-200ER, 777-300ER, 787-8, and 787-9.

The 777-200ER, 787-8, and 787-9 all feature Flagship Business, while the 777-300ER is the only widebody aircraft in American’s fleet to feature both Flagship Business and Flagship First. There are 37 business class lie-flat seats on the 777-200ERs, the 787-8s have 20, and the larger 787-9 has 30. The 777-300ER has eight exclusive first class lie-flat seats and 52 business flat beds.

Historically, American Airlines also flew the Boeing 757, 767, 747, Airbus A330-200, and A330-300 aircraft variants to its widebody fleet.

Related

No More Widebodies? American Airlines Will Remove Boeing 777 & 787 Dreamliner Flights Between Miami And Los Angeles

There is no date on when the larger aircraft could return to the route.

Have you flown on an American Airlines widebody flight domestically before? Let us know in the comments.