Charlotte Douglas International Airport
(CLT), the principal international airport serving Charlotte, North Carolina, is located six miles west of the city’s principal financial district. The airport serves as the primary gateway for both commercial and military use in the greater Charlotte area, and it has been operated by the city’s Department of Aviation for decades. The facility covers more than 5,5000 acres of land.
Originally established in 1935 as Charlotte Municipal Airport and later renamed in honor of Ben Elbert Douglas Sr., a mayor of the city, the airport would continue to grow to become the 11th-busiest in the United States in 2019 in terms of passenger traffic, with more than 50 million passengers passing through its doors each year. In terms of aircraft operations (the actual number of flights arriving and taking off at the airport), the facility ranks as the fifth-busiest in the United States and the sixth globally, a fact which demonstrates that the airport is heavily saturated with smaller, short-haul flight operations. By 2021, the airport had established itself as the sixth-busiest in the United States, according to a traffic breakdown from Forbes.
Photo: Wenjie Zheng | Shutterstock
The principal catalyst for the rapid and seemingly unstoppable growth of this airport has been continued investment by legacy carrier American Airlines into its operational network from the facility. A major fortress hub for American Airlines, a carrier that today maintains the largest airline by market share at CLT, Charlotte is a critical international gateway for the airline. With 3 operating runways and one currently not in use, alongside a large passenger terminal that features 124 gates spread across five different concourses, Charlotte Douglas Airport is large, and few will deny that it has room to grow.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport
- IATA/ICAO Code
-
CLT/KCLT
- Country
-
United States
- CEO
-
Haley Gentry
American has used its largest aircraft to add capacity to the airport
Legacy carrier American Airlines has been able to continually grow the number of seats it offers from Charlotte, notably by using one unique strategy. Over time, the airline has grown its long-haul network from Charlotte, but not just by adding more destinations and by increasing the frequency of flight services. Rather, the airline has slowly introduced the Boeing 777, the largest aircraft in its fleet (and the largest jet operated by any US airline), for flights to and from Charlotte.
Photo: Santi Rodriguez | Shutterstock
The airline’s ability to introduce this high-capacity widebody jet to flights to and from Charlotte, however, tells an interesting story. Flights operated by the Boeing 777 are typically reserved for just the highest-capacity services, and, as a result, are only found on the highest-demand markets. Nonetheless, American was able to take a medium-sized market, Charlotte, and transform it into one that was friendly for Boeing 777 operations. In this article, we will take a deeper look at the story of American Airlines’ long-haul operations at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
The airline used to operate flights from Charlotte with the Airbus A330
The story of how American Airlines came to operate Boeing 777s from Charlotte began back in 2013 when it inherited a fleet of Airbus A330s following its merger with US Airways. US Airways operated a fleet of 24 Airbus A330 jets, including nine A330-300 models and fifteen A330-200s, all of which would enter the American Airlines fleet as a result of the merger. These jets had previously served as the backbone of US Airways’ transatlantic operations, specifically when it came to their hubs at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT).
In the wake of the merger, American Airlines continued operating the Airbus A330s that it inherited from US Airways, and the airline began to deploy these jets on key routes from destinations like Charlotte and Philadelphia. Back in 2015, these flights served destinations including London Heathrow Airport (LHR), Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD), and Frankfurt Airport (FRA). The airline’s long-haul fleet strategy was mostly at odds with Airbus A330 operations, as American Airlines mostly operated Boeing widebody jets, including the Boeing 777 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This mismatch of aircraft types led to higher maintenance costs and weaker operational synergies, something that eventually encouraged American to gradually phase out its Airbus A330s.

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The aircraft choice was part of a larger effort to renew the airline’s fleet, and today, it flies across American’s network.
American already had plans to retire its older-generation Airbus A330s when the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the proposed retirement timeline for these jets. In response to rapidly collapsing air travel demand, American Airlines announced that it would immediately be retiring five different aircraft models, including the entire Airbus A330 fleet. Shortly after the announcement was made, American Airlines moved its Airbus A330-200s into long-term storage and its Airbus A330-300s were removed from service shortly after.
The decision to retire these jets early did leave some industry analysts scratching their heads. These jets were relatively young, and they were optimized for the kinds of mid-market transatlantic routes American Airlines needed to operate from Philadelphia and Charlotte. Many had even begun to question whether the airline’s merger with US Airways was the best course of action seven years prior, as the acquisition of these A330s was a major piece of the carrier’s pathway forward.
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That is to say, the A330s were considered by many to be one of American’s largest financial assets. Ultimately, however, the carrier decided to opt for a streamlined strategy, focusing on operating just Boeing 777s and 787s to improve operational efficiency, reduce maintenance complexity, and unify its long-haul strategy.
Photo: Dirk Daniel Mann | Shutterstock
The carrier replaced its Airbus A330s with Boeing 777s
When the Airbus A330 was retired, American Airlines was put in a difficult position as it did not have an aircraft optimized to serve transatlantic medium-haul routes from its middle-market hubs. The airline could have used its Boeing 787s to serve these routes, but they are better used on longer routes. According to The Charlotte Observer, the airline began to demonstrate that Charlotte Douglas Airport could support Boeing 777 operations, using the lower-capacity Boeing 777-200ER model on routes to Madrid, Frankfurt, and Munich. Following the Airbus A330s retirement, however, the aircraft soon became the principal widebody jet operating flights to and from the airport.

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The flight had arrived from London.
Recently, American Airlines made history by introducing the Boeing 777-300ER to Charlotte, operating the jet on its flagship transatlantic service from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to the city for the first time on November 5th, 2024. This decision increased capacity and improved the premium experience on this route, which is one of Charlotte’s most important for international business travelers. Furthermore, this route offers passengers efficient connections to the network of British Airways, one of the airline’s Oneworld partners.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
Charlotte now joined the likes of Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Miami (MIA), Los Angeles (LAX), and New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) as major airports served by American Boeing 777s. This move also marked a shift in the airline’s transatlantic strategy, and it serves as one of the key turning points in which the airline decided that Charlotte could be a key connecting hub for the carrier’s traffic between the United States and Europe.
The airline today operates many different transatlantic routes from Charlotte using the popular widebody jet
The Boeing 777 offers American Airlines increased capacity and more premium seating, providing key advantages over its predecessor. The Boeing 777’s business class features up to 52 lie-flat Flagship Business class seats, offering more revenue-generating potential on key routes like Charlotte to London. Here are some additional details about the flights that American is currently using the Boeing 777 for from Charlotte:
Destination: |
Monthly flights: |
Monthly seats: |
---|---|---|
Frankfurt |
28 |
7,644 |
London |
50 |
13,650 |
Miami |
28 |
7,644 |
Madrid |
27 |
7,371 |
Munich |
14 |
3,822 |
Photo: Dirk Daniel Mann | Shutterstock
These larger aircraft have given American the flexibility to build out its Charlotte hub, while also offering passengers a more comfortable experience onboard. Furthermore, the jets also offer increased cargo space, further improving revenue-generating potential for the airline.