We know that American Airlines is planning on placing a wide body aircraft order in the near future, based on negotiations with Airbus and Boeing. While we’ve had no idea which aircraft type was the frontrunner, I think just about everyone assumed the Boeing 777X wasn’t realistically in the running. Well, there’s now an interesting clue on that front… though who knows, maybe we’re reading too much into this!
American pilot trains on and flies Boeing 777X
JonNYC flags an Instagram post by an American Boeing 777 pilot. Specifically, she spent the past few weeks in England at Boeing’s training center, where she trained on the new 777X. She then even got to fly the 777X, and piloted a segment from Spokane to Boeing Field.
In the post, she wrote that it’s “truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of the training process for future pilots.” Then in response to another comment, she wrote “really a once in a lifetime experience,” and “I don’t think I’ll be here when this jet comes to our fleet.”
Could American be considering the Boeing 777Xs?
Up until this point, I think if you asked just about anyone whether American would consider ordering the Boeing 777X, they’d say “no way.” So when I first saw the video, I assumed I was just interpreting it incorrectly, because this was all too obvious.
But I’m struggling to come up with other explanations? At a minimum, we know American sent her on official business to fly the 777X in some context. When an airline orders a new plane (and particularly, an all-new aircraft type that isn’t even certified), it’s common for the airline to send a couple of pilots to essentially give the plane a “test drive.”
So I have to imagine that’s the context in which this project was done. Now, whether this actually resulted in an order remains to be seen. It could be that she was doing this in anticipation of an order shortly being finalized, or it could’ve been done purely as a Boeing sales pitch (“send some of your pilots, they’ll tell you how great it is!”).
I guess the other possible explanation is that Boeing was somehow contracting 777 pilots from airlines to figure out crew training processes, or something like that, since the plane is in the final stages of certification. But then again, she literally talked about the plane joining American’s fleet, so you’d assume she wouldn’t be misinformed on that.
As I said above, it would be really surprising to see American order the Boeing 777X. It’s just a bigger plane than any US carrier wants, given their split hub strategy. You’d think American would instead go for something like an Airbus A330-900neo or Boeing 787-10.
I guess to look at differently, I’m sure Boeing would love to have a customer in the United States and to keep increasing its 777X order book, and I’m sure they’d give American a deal. Also, I’m not sure how old this particular pilot is, but she points out that the plane will likely arrive after she retires. So this could be some order for the 2030s, which gives both parties a lot of flexibility, but mutually good press (which they can both use right now).
Bottom line
An American Airlines Boeing 777 pilot trained on the 777X, and even wrote on social media about the plane joining American’s fleet in the future. At a minimum, this can’t help but make you wonder if there’s a small chance that American could be ordering this plane.
It’s common for airlines to send some pilots when ordering new aircraft, especially when it’s new technology, like the 777X. I wouldn’t necessarily read too much into this, except this pilot also suggested the plane would join American’s fleet, so…
What do you think? Is there even a small chance American orders the 777X?
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