American recently started taking delivery of its latest batch of Boeing 787-9s. These are exciting for the airline and for passengers, as they’re premium heavy jets, with new interiors. What’s less exciting is the recurring maintenance issue that one of these jets seems to be having.
The short, cursed life of American’s N846AN
The Boeing 787-9 with the registration code N846AN is brand new, and was delivered to American on April 29, 2025, flying from Everett (PAE) to Dallas (DFW). On June 4, 2025, the plane was supposed to be ferried to Chicago (ORD), with flight number AA9783, in order to enter commercial service.
However, the plane encountered a maintenance issue, and had to return to Dallas, where it landed a little under an hour after it took off.
The next day, on June 5, 2025, the plane finally managed to position to Chicago.
Then on June 6, 2025, the plane was supposed to make its commercial debut, flying to Los Angeles (LAX) and back, operating as AA2012 and AA2321. That rotation ended up getting canceled altogether, again, due to maintenance issues.
The next day, the plane was scheduled to operate the exact same rotation. Fortunately this time around, things worked out a little better, with an emphasis on the “little better” part.
The plane managed to operate the outbound from Chicago to Los Angeles, with a delay of just over two hours. Funny enough, that delay was due to crew availability, rather than due to a maintenance issue. So that was the commercial inaugural flight for the jet.
Yay, does that mean the plane’s maintenance issues were fixed? Well, not so fast. The plane was supposed to have a quick turnaround in Los Angeles, with under 90 minutes on the ground. Instead, the flight that was supposed to depart at 1PM on June 7 has been rescheduled for 9PM on June 8, representing a 32-hour delay, and that’s best case scenario.
So yeah, while the plane was supposed to have operated four passenger flights as of now, in reality, it has operated a single flight. That’s not so good!
Is American’s brand new Boeing 787 a lemon, or…?
Clearly this brand new Boeing 787 has some problems. I’ve heard different theories as to what exactly the problem is, ranging from issues with one of the engines, to issues with one of the doors, so I can’t speak authoritatively to what’s going on.
As @xJonNYC notes, it seems to be unknown whether the current maintenance issues fit into the category of being “growing pains,” vs. there being some bigger issue with the jet.
Of course one would hope that brand new planes are delivered in perfect condition, but there are sometimes mistakes during the manufacturing process (especially with Boeing). Again, I’m not saying that is the case, but the fact that American keeps trying to fly the plane, only for it to then cause huge delays, suggests some issue keeps happening over and over.
I’m going to be tracking this new jet with great interest over the coming days, to see if American tries to keep the plane in commercial service, or if it eventually ends up back in the main maintenance facility in Dallas, or ends up being flown back to Boeing.
Bottom line
American’s brand new Boeing 787-9 with the registration code N846AN is having some recurring maintenance issues. The plane had to divert on its repositioning flight to Chicago, and of the four scheduled commercial flights, two have been canceled, and one has been delayed by at least 32 hours.
It’ll be interesting to see just how serious the issues with this plane are, and if it’ll eventually be taken out of service for some more serious maintenance work.
What do you make of the issues with this new 787-9?
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