An 
American Airlines
Airbus A319 returned to operating regularly scheduled flights over the weekend after an extended grounding. On Sunday, the nearly two-decade-old plane flew passengers for the first time since January.
It comes as reports about American’s plans to retrofit its A319s
with new cabins resurfaced earlier this month. The aircraft type is among the carrier’s oldest in its fleet, with an average age of more than 20 years.
Back in the sky
Aviation watchdog JonNYC first reported the news involving N836AW
. Data from FlightAware shows that the aircraft was ferried from Mobile International Airport (BFM) to American’s hub at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
on Saturday as AA9780. The plane took off from the southern Alabama airport around 13:45 CDT and climbed to 36,000 feet. After a flight time of just over an hour, the aircraft landed on runway 36L at CLT just before 16:00.
Photo: FlightAware
N836AW officially returned to service on Sunday, but only operated a Norfolk, Virginia, turn. It departed from gate C15 as AA1912 at 07:06 and arrived at gate A8 at Norfolk International Airport (ORF) at 08:13. It then returned to CLT as AA2059, departing ORF at 08:50 and landing at 10:07. Although the aircraft only operated two flights on Sunday, it has a busier day scheduled on Monday. It will be deployed on a total of five flights, visiting Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Bangor International Airport (BGR), and Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).
Before AA1912, the last passenger flight N836AW operated was AA1696, from Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
on January 29th, according to Flightradar24. On January 30th, the plane was ferried to BFM as AA9795 and remained at the airport for nearly eight months. It performed a 41-minute test flight on Thursday before returning to CLT on Saturday.
D Check?
It is unclear why N836AW remained on the ground for so long. Simple Flying contacted American for comment late Sunday but was unable to receive an immediate response. The grounding was not likely related to American’s plan to retrofit the cabin interiors of its A319s since
Simple Flying reported last week that the airline will begin the process next year
.
Photo: Austin Deppe | Shutterstock
Although maintenance-related groundings are not uncommon, an extended period of more than six months may indicate that the aircraft needed extensive overhaul. According to ePlane, most commercial planes are subject to a “D Check” every 6-10 years, which “involves completely taking apart and inspecting the aircraft like never before.” Depending on the plane’s size and condition, the process can take months to complete.
19 years, 3 airlines
According to ch-aviation, N836AW is 19 years old. It flew for the first time in September 2005 and was delivered to America West Airlines the following month. America West subsequently merged with US Airways, which imposed a new livery on the aircraft, although its registration remained unchanged.
N836AW was officially operated by US Airways for just under a decade – from January 15, 2006, to October 16, 2015 – before the carrier merged with American. Once again, the plane was painted into a new livery, but retained its registration. As of June of this year, it has recorded over 54,200 flight hours across more than 26,250 flight cycles.