American Will Fly Boeing 787s From New York

In the coming months, American Airlines will start flying Boeing 787s out of New York, which should have some interesting implications. I first wrote about this several weeks ago, but there’s now a major update, as the number of 787 routes out of New York is increasing considerably.

American opening Boeing 787 pilot base in New York

Airlines put a lot of thought into deciding which aircraft to base out of which hubs. For example, American’s wide body fleet currently consists of 787s and 777s, yet you won’t find both aircraft types at all major hubs. The airline exclusively flies 777s out of New York, while the airline exclusively flies 787s out of Philadelphia. Until a couple of years ago, American only based 777s (and not 787s) out of Miami, but that has finally changed.

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What’s the logic for this kind of fleet planning? While you want to be able to match capacity to demand, there are costs to basing multiple types of aircraft at an airport in terms of pilot staffing, maintenance, etc.

Along those lines, American is making a notable change to its fleet planning for New York, as first reported by @xJonNYC. As of the fall of 2024, American will start flying 787s out of New York, as the airline is opening a 787 pilot base there.

While there was initially talk of basing just 20 captains and 20 first officers out of the airport (enough for one ultra long haul route), it’s clear that number is being expanded significantly, based on the number of 787 routes now in the schedule, as flagged by Ryan Ewing.

Where will American fly Boeing 787s from New York?

American has just updated its schedule to reflect that five different routes out of New York will be operated by the Boeing 787 as of October 27, 2024 (the start of the winter airline schedule):

• New York (JFK) to Delhi (DEL) will be operated by a Boeing 787-9, replacing a Boeing 777-300ER
• New York (JFK) to Tokyo (HND) will be operated by a Boeing 787-9, replacing a Boeing 777-200ER
• New York (JFK) to Madrid (MAD) will be operated by a Boeing 787-8, replacing a Boeing 777-200ER
• New York (JFK) to Sao Paulo (GRU) will be operated by a Boeing 787-9, replacing a Boeing 777-200ER
• New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG) will be operated by a Boeing 787-8, replacing a Boeing 777-200ER

Across the board, this will have significant implications for American’s premium cabin capacity:

• American’s 787-9s have 30 business class seats, while American’s 787-8s have 20 business class seats
• American’s 777-300ERs have 60 first & business class seats, while American’s 777-200ERs have 37 business class seats

As you can see, premium cabin capacity is decreasing considerably across the board. The Delhi route is going from 60 first & business class seats to 30 business class seats, while the Madrid route is going from 37 business class seats to 20 business class seats.

While all of American’s initial 787 routes out of New York are on “standard” 787s, in the long run I wouldn’t be surprised to see American fly some of its ultra-premium 787s out of New York. These planes will have American’s new business class product, and will have a lot more business class seats. However, delivery of these aircraft is delayed, so it’ll likely be 2025 before any New York routes get these cabins.

In many cases, 787s are probably better suited for New York routes than 777s, as some of these planes are lower capacity, and can also operate ultra long haul flights with better economics.

Bottom line

American will soon start flying 787s out of New York, meaning 777s will no longer be the carrier’s only wide body aircraft based out of the airport. American is adding quite a bit of Dreamliner capacity to New York, and as of the winter season, we’ll see the 787 flying from New York to Delhi, Madrid, Paris, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo.

What do you make of American basing 787s out of New York?