Well here’s something you don’t see that often, as flagged by JonNYC. This month, American Airlines is intentionally operating 20 roundtrip flights across the Atlantic without any passengers or cargo. What’s the logic for this? Well, there’s an interesting explanation, as you’d expect…
Continue reading: American Flying Empty Airbus A321neo Across The Atlantic 20 Times
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hours in the air can't be done in a simulator or they could do that in Dallas, however, just remember this the next time you have the option to pay for the carbon offset with your tickets.
It is but AA has no flights to Shannon so they would likely need to setup handling contracts just for these 20 flights. The marginal fuel savings likely aren't worth it.
it is primarily for familiarization with ATC and NAT procedures. It is standard procedure for someone to get a qualification to have to operate flights in the region they are getting qualified in. They usually operate live flights, but that isn't currently possible with the Airbus, so flying an empty airplane is the solution
Its the same with Qantas A321XLR, currently shutteling between brisbane, sydney, Melbourne and Perth empty as crew training. It has Q6000 flight number normally used for repositioning flights and crew training.
I find this rather odd. A few years ago i was flying AF LIM-CDG on their A350 and on the flight they told us that pilots from ITA Airways were in the deck to gain experience. That was shortly before ITA got their first A350.
Couldn't AA do something similar with JV partner Iberia or fellow Oneworld member Aer Lingus on the A321XLR instead of flying so many empty flights?
Might there be a convenient JFK/EDI route in the future? Instead of inconvenient Philadelphia? This is the kind of route Delta wins on.
AA may not have the "sexy" international network, but they do have a significantly larger international portfolio vs Delta. Mongolia is a cool place to think about going, but Americans actually go to the Bahamas and Tortola 😉
International destinations:
UA: 147
AA: 130
DL: 100
Delta, JetBlue fly to JFK already and United flies to EWR, I don't think there is demand for a fourth competitor on this route
Based on this, it seems AA have concluded that doing this training on delivery flights alone would not get the 320 LGA-International base up and running fast enough. Hopefully that means AA expects a few more XLRs by year-end and has around 5-6 by the time they start ops in March.
I do think more people would be interested O/D in a 4th New York flight rather than Philly. From what I can tell, no one really cares about Philadelphia on this side of the pond. Are there any big corporations making it a useful business destination?
I do think more people would be interested O/D in a 4th New York flight rather than Philly. From what I can tell, no one really cares about Philadelphia on this side of the pond. Are there any big corporations making it a useful business destination?
How much is different across the middle of the Atlantic?
If it is about the two ends, how about doing twenty flights out of PHL to two hours away and back in, and then the same at the EDI end?
Non-revs are still passengers - and therefore require FAs.
I know cargo was flown in empty planes during COVID , strikes and A380 certification flights
Great!!! 385 Kg of carbon dioxide (travel.google/flights), per seat, each way. Took one of the lowest emission amounts for those particular destinations. [385 (Kg) X 2.2 (pounds per Kg) X 40 (20 round trips) X 200 (seats) = 6,776,000] pounds of climate warming gas sown at the perfect altitude to trap more heat.
You are all missing the point: 20 flights in which no passengr complains about service, food, reliability, and confort is a big win for American.
This sounds like ETOPs training and qualifications. The FAA rides along and they go through all kinds of different scenarios involving the flightcrew, dispatchers and maintenance. Both the 321 and the flightcrews have to be certified for ETOPs across the NATL even though they have it between the West Coast and Hawaii.
Thanks for bursting the bubble that this could have been a dream flight for non-revs !
I’m PHL-based, so part of me wants to puff out my chest and brag on the city being an important business destination. It’s partially true, but the real reason PHL-EDI works is that AA feeds all its EDI traffic into PHL, which it can’t do at slots-restricted JFK. It’s not about O/D.
Philly is the 2nd largest city on the US east coast and nearby Wilmington, Delaware (25 minute drive from PHL International) is the official city of incorporation for 50% of US companies due to the state being something of a domestic tax haven and having a well regarded court system in regards to corporate law.
Why couldn't they just replace the 787 on the scheduled service with this for the limited time period? Or if that wouldn't have been practical for this particular route, couldn't they have done a swap on some other scheduled service (presumably a struggling one without too many pax) rather than flying these empty?
FlightRadar 24 shows the outbound (PHL dep 20:40EST; EDI arr 08:30BST) as AA9805 and inbound (EDI dep 09:30; PHL 12:00) as A9806. 9806 is in the air now (as of 10:35EST), tail # is N471AN and it’s an hour late with ETA of 13:01EST after a late 10:19BST start).
9805 4 Sept thru 7 Sept has averaged 20-30 mins late departure but mostly on-time or early arrivals - thank you Atlantic jet stream.
That’d be a great jump seat ride for an avgeek but I suspect that’s where the training captain is mostly sat.
Also a fun one to track until the training program ends.
Should be a bit less. I'm sure the CO2 metrics from Google are for a fully-loaded plane, and these will be empty, so presumably flying with less weight and therefore less fuel.
"but they do have a significantly larger international portfolio vs Delta"
While I understand that your intention with this is to troll Tim Dunn, because you can be an equally immature individual at times; there's really no need to exaggerate.
The majority of that "significantly larger" portfolio is regional destinations in Mexico (which Delta has zero incentive to chase due to AeroMexico partnership) and Caribbean destinations unique to Miami (which United also does not serve).
As a resident of the Western USA, I would prefer to transfer just about anywhere rather than JFK, especially returning home and passing through customs. Re-entering security at the JFK terminal really blows and we have come close to missing our connection multiple times. If AA still has the US Airways capacity at PHL and can make that an easier transfer point, that works for me.
When USAirways Express first got EMB170's they did the same for a few months out Pittsburgh to get pilots up to speed. We also did that with GoJets on the CRJ 700's when they started out. I was with Trans States Airlines.