American Airlines
received two early Christmas presents this week: two new aircraft were added to its fleet. An Airbus A321NX touched down in Charlotte, while a Boeing 737 MAX 8 arrived in Dallas.
Christmas comes early
On Friday, American officially welcomed a shiny new Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Airbus A321neo into its fleet.
Boeing 737 MAX 8: Registration N357TY
According to delivery data from Flightradar24, the 737, which holds registration N357TY and serial number 44505, completed several test flights above Seattle earlier this month; however, it departed Boeing Field (BFI) on Friday, destined for American’s home in Texas.
AA9825 departed at 15:10 for the three-hour, 17-minute journey to the airline’s largest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), touching down at 20:27. This marks American’s 65th 737 MAX 8 delivery.
Airbus A321NX: Registration N472AN
For Airbus lovers, the latest Airbus A321neo departed from Airbus’ US assembly line in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday for the short hop to the airline’s operating base at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), according to Flightradar24. The service, operated under AA9822, pushed back from Mobile International Airport (BFM) at 13:36, traveling for just one hour and nine minutes before touching down in Charlotte at 15:45. The aircraft holds serial number 12282.
Before being delivered, the aircraft utilized French Airbus registration F-WZMY. This marks the airline’s 73rd Airbus A321neo, but only the third airframe to be delivered this year.
Related
American Airlines Confirms Order for 260 Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer Aircraft
American’s order includes 85 Airbus A321neos, 85 Boeing 737 MAX 10s, and 90 Embraer E175 planes. Its A319 and A320 fleets are also up for a retrofit.
Two of many new aircraft destined for American Airlines
While American may be one of the largest airlines in the world in terms of the total number of daily flights, United Airlines is the world’s largest carrier in terms of the total number of aircraft in its fleet. American, however, is closely on the airline’s toes, with several new aircraft destined for the carrier fleet in the coming years.
While Simple Flying has already covered the various aircraft orders made by American Airlines, data from ch-aviation identifies that the airline currently operates 918 aircraft across 11 different aircraft types (excluding the airline’s regional subsidiaries).
Currently, American Airlines
operates the Airbus A319-100, A320-200, A321-200, A321neo, in the Airbus family, and the Boeing 737 MAX 8, 737-800, 777-200ER, 777-300ER, 787-8, and 787-9 Dreamliner.
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
Nearly 330 new aircraft are on order, which consist of:
- 98 Airbus A321neos
- 50 Airbus A321XLRs
- 115 Boeing 737 MAX 10s
- 36 Boeing 737 MAX 8s
- 30 Boeing 787-9s
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Not yet scheduled for commercial operations
According to data from Flightradar24, the two new aircraft were not yet scheduled to operate scheduled commercial services on Saturday. However, once introduced into commercial service, these aircraft are expected to support the airline’s domestic and short-haul international networks, such as domestic services across the US and services within the Caribbean and Latin America. Both aircraft remain on the apron at Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte Douglas in preparation for introduction to scheduled service.
Photo: Frontpage | Shutterstock
Earlier this month, another US carrier, 
United Airlines
, also welcomed its 25th Airbus A321neo. The aircraft, which holds registration N44522, was delivered just a few days before a second (N54525) assembled in Mobile before delivery to the Star Alliance carrier.
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United Airlines Takes Delivery Of Its 25th Airbus A321neo
With more aircraft on the way, United aims to surpass 1,000 active aircraft and become the largest airline in the world.