American Airlines’ Airbus A330s that were (prematurely, in my opinion) retired at the start of the coronavirus pandemic will be returning to the skies… but for a different airline!
In this post:
Sun PhuQuoc Airways picks up eight Airbus A330s
Sun PhuQuoc Airways is a leisure airline startup based in Vietnam. The airline received its air operator’s certificate in September 2025, and commenced commercial operations as of November 2025.
The carrier’s primary hub is in Phu Quoc (PQC), as you may have guessed based on the name. So far the company has a fleet of 10 Airbus A320-family aircraft, including two A320neos, two A321s, and six A321neos. The airline has huge growth aspirations beyond that, including acquiring eight Airbus A330-200s, plus 20 Boeing 787-9s.
We’re now learning more details about how these wide body plans are taking shape. It appears that PhuQuoc Airways is acquiring eight A330s that used to fly for American.
The planes are expected to be delivered to the airline between June 2026 and March 2027. They’re still quite new, as they’re only 12-13 years old, and they’ve spent roughly half of that time in storage.
These are all planes that were initially delivered to US Airways, and they have 247 seats, including 20 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 206 economy seats. The business class seats are in a reverse herringbone configuration.
It remains to be seen how many changes the airline actually makes to these planes. Vietnamese airlines are known for acquiring planes secondhand, and making minimal updates. 😉
It’s going to be fascinating to see what long haul routes the airline has planned with these aircraft. While Vietnam’s economy has been growing fast, the country’s aviation sector has seen mixed results. For example, several years back we saw Bamboo Airways growing at a very fast pace, only to then have to dump most of its aircraft, because the economics just didn’t make sense.
I’m determined to fly on one of these PhuQuoc Airways A330s once they enter service, as this’ll be such a blast from the past for American (hopefully the Park Hyatt Phu Quoc is open by then!).
These A330s were a major strategic blunder for American
It can’t be overstated how much of a strategic blunder it was for American to retire these planes so early, and as I see it, this was part of when American really firmly cemented its third place position among the “big three” carriers.
At the start of the pandemic, American retired all of its A330s, along with all Boeing 757s and 767s, and that massively limited American’s long haul growth opportunities. While that maybe seemed wise for some number of weeks when many people felt travel demand would never recover, demand sure came back fast and strong.
So when that happened, American found itself at a major disadvantage, given its small long haul fleet. What’s sad is that at a minimum, American could’ve initially reactivated these A330s. They were just six or seven years old at the time, and had plenty of life left in them, not to mention American had just reconfigured them to add premium economy.
But nope, American didn’t do that. Instead, it just pursued its “buy lots of new planes, bulk up on debt, and dominate the world via El Paso” strategy, which hasn’t exactly been a smashing success.
Bottom line
American’s gently used Airbus A330-200s will be returning to the skies, flying for Vietnam leisure airline startup Sun PhuQuoc Airways. The airline launched operations in recent months, and has massive growth plans, including acquiring eight ex-American A330s, along with quite a few Boeing 787-9s.
We’ll see how this all plays out, though I’m happy to see these planes getting another lease on life, given that they were only in service for such a short period. It’s just a shame American isn’t the airline that decided to bring them back.
What do you make of this deal involving ex-American A330s?
Few from SGN-HAN J on them last week and it was outstanding from start to finish, the best domestic, and one of the best short haul flights I have ever been on. A really well thought out and executed proposition. Very nice lounge with personal service and a solid à la carte menu. Onboard service was also great, individually plated and presented 3 courses, including a very delicious salmon and caviar appetizer. I hope they...
Few from SGN-HAN J on them last week and it was outstanding from start to finish, the best domestic, and one of the best short haul flights I have ever been on. A really well thought out and executed proposition. Very nice lounge with personal service and a solid à la carte menu. Onboard service was also great, individually plated and presented 3 courses, including a very delicious salmon and caviar appetizer. I hope they can expand successfully, would love to be able to fly them long haul.
Flew a flight from Hanoi to HCM and they were pleasant to fly. Hope they don't go the way of Bamboo and Wow by expanding too fast
@ConcordeLadyBoy has returned....lets have some fun gurl..
Just flew a VietJet A330 (formerly AirAsia) from SGN to SYD a couple weeks ago. My seat felt more spacious than the fancy CX A350-1000 that got me from YYZ to HKG.
Ben, I love how the changes are minimal when planes are handed to airlines in Vietnam. It reminds me of good times.
An AA hit job made to look like a new Vietnam airline lovefest. C’mon.
I still like AA. Yes, they are a distant 3rd. No, it would be bad for everyone if they were to disappear.
And yes, I doubt another new Vietnam air carrier will survive.
while I would love to carry on with dunking on AA, it says something to me that it has taken 6 years to find someone willing to take these relatively "young" A332.
Seems strange to me, too. One would think with their history, DL would have loved to buy 330s with the lower price than new. But, maybe AA wasn't willing to part with them at a market-adjusted price.
They were supposed to go to TG until they backed out last minute
I had the same thoughts, but how did even take them that long to not-go to TG?
Do we think TG got a better offer with the China Southern 787s?
Just in Phu Quoc. Ben, it would be a great family trip for you + kids — lots to do.
FUN FACT:
Vietnam Airlines' route from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City (SFO-SGN) nonstop transpacific flight, is *the* single lowest yielding overseas flight segment departing the USA, as per Cirium records ending 4Q25.
That flight has 1/6th of the yield of the highest overseas flight (EWR-SIN, SQ) despite being a shorter distance.
Worst performer by a US carrier is LAX-HKG, UA.
Worst performer over the Atlantic is DFW-HEL, AY.
How does one access these records? Fascinating information
"How does one access these records?"
$$$$, and lots of it.
Cirium will sell the data to anyone, but it's like the price of a new car. Easily $25,000 or more. I don't know the current rates, but I'm sure airlines and research firms get some kind of corporate discount prices tough.
One of our clients paid for Cirium last year, for some research they wanted done. I don't know what price they negotiated, but the market price for 2025 was $31,000.
Probably be worse this year, with effect from all the upheavals in the Middle East.
Any specific reasons why? I'm curious.
@ConcordeBoy
In June, Delta will start flying LAX-HKG. How will Delta make it work when United is not performing well on that route? It seems passengers prefer Cathay Pacific which flies thrice daily on this route.
May be Tim Dunn can explain to us how Delta will survive on this route.
It's not just about yields. Sometimes the carrier must fly certain routes to keep corporate accounts happy...politics and other unsexy things that people on here do not wish to hear about play into this ha. Low(lower)crap "yields" does not mean "no revenue". Cathay is unbeatable HKG to the US. UA is a much bigger and more established name in HK than DL for sure...so it will be interesting. DL will do as well to HKG...
It's not just about yields. Sometimes the carrier must fly certain routes to keep corporate accounts happy...politics and other unsexy things that people on here do not wish to hear about play into this ha. Low(lower)crap "yields" does not mean "no revenue". Cathay is unbeatable HKG to the US. UA is a much bigger and more established name in HK than DL for sure...so it will be interesting. DL will do as well to HKG as they did on LHR-LAX. The people of Hong Kong are image-conscious, same as Londoners who will fly VS over DL. HKG/London SAME. Watch! DL does well when throwing a bunch of its metal at the Skyteam hubs. ICN/LHR/AMS and CDG. Anyway, lets see what happens.
Sure, though at the yield they're getting, there's not a chance in hell that they're making money on a per segment basis.
It's literally the 3rd lowest yielding overseas longhaul flight departing the continental US, the lowest segment in UA's entire system, and the lowest by any USA carrier. It's garbage, in every sense of the word. IAH-SYD is right behind...
Sure, though at the yield they're getting, there's not a chance in hell that they're making money on a per segment basis.
It's literally the 3rd lowest yielding overseas longhaul flight departing the continental US, the lowest segment in UA's entire system, and the lowest by any USA carrier. It's garbage, in every sense of the word. IAH-SYD is right behind it. Those are far and away UA's absolute stinkers.
Though before anyone gets the wrong idea, UA has some total goldmines as well: IAH-GIG and IAH-GEO absolutely *print* money.
Even in the mid-range: UA's IAD-CPT treads water, but it still doing much better than DL's ATL-CPT.
I have no idea why DL is starting the route. My suspicion is that they have a major corporate client who's demanding the service, and losing that client would incur more losses throughout the network than they'd lose by just flying the route.
Similar for UA actually. UA doesn't have...
I have no idea why DL is starting the route. My suspicion is that they have a major corporate client who's demanding the service, and losing that client would incur more losses throughout the network than they'd lose by just flying the route.
Similar for UA actually. UA doesn't have an aircraft that can realistically fly to HKG from east of the Rockies, with Russian airspace closed: so they can't resume EWR-HKG and ORD-HKG, and had to put all their capacity into their California hubs, or risk losing business from their east coast clients.
Also hurts UA in that it's taking passengers from LAX to BKK on the same aircraft operating LAX-HKG, often for a lower price (at a farther distance) than just the LAX-HKG segment itself.
Truly at a loss as to why they didn't "just" go for a nonstop LAX-BKK (or even SFO-BKK, despite lower demand) and utilize TG's connections; rather than resume it 1stop via HKG, considering how poorly they're performing that way.
That's PhuQuoc-ing awesome!
Doom to fail big time! Phu Quoc is a low standard, poor quality, unpopular destination in communist Vietnam like China Hainan island . Go once you will not come again. Better go to other popular islands in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Watch the flip flop traveler videos on the island - I disagree
Phu Quoc is a lovely and beautiful island that is a great value with lots of new US flagged resorts and good air connections to many places in Southeast Asia. It's also visa-free for folks who would otherwise need a visa to enter Vietnam.
The JW is supposed to be wonderful there. Maybe too low class for you these days lol but check out the reviews.
No doubt this AA decision to retire the A330's made no sense.
It made sense at the time. Nobody thought the vaccine would get made and distributed as far and as quickly as it did, and that travel would rebound as quickly as it did.
Scott Kirby and United Airlines were the outlier who got grief for keeping what was thought at the time to be too many planes on the books.
People charged with making these billion dollar decisions don't do things nonsensically. You just didn't understand it.
Once it became clear that long-haul travel demand was returning, why didn't AA re-activate the A330-200s and some of their other wide-body aircraft? Other airlines did that, especially with A380s.
AA's initial decision to retire these aircraft may have been the right thing to do at the time, but there is no reason why they could not have reversed course when circumstances changed.
"People charged with making these billion dollar decisions don't do things nonsensically. You just didn't understand it." Or, they really screwed up. Yes, you can make the right decision given available information and have it go pear shaped. You can also really make a terrible decision. I don't imagine you are smart enough to know the difference.
The first 332 flew ROW-MZJ on Thursday for RTS work by Ascent Aviation.
What was the “El Paso strategy”?
It was to serve many small cities at the expense of a few large ones.
“Let DL and UA have JFK and SFO,” said American. “We’ll dominate in ‘up and coming’ markets!”
Turns out up and coming markets aren’t profitable because the big money flies JFK/SFO, like, exclusively. Equity partners at top law firms don’t take clients in El Paso!
Greenie, please do tell us more about how you like to 'dominate'... the competition!
"It was to serve many small cities at the expense of a few large ones."
Your Google ability is second to none. That's why you're an equity partner at Sidley Ropes Skadden Shearman Piper Baker Winston Covington and Debevoise pulling down quadrillions of dollars a week.
So if Western Refining was looking for new representation your firm wouldn't be interested?
Weren't they supposed to go to Thai, or am I missing something?
Perhaps you're thinking of the 787s from China Southern
I recall Thai were supposed to pick up some ex-AA A332s, but the BOD denied the lease as it's older and less fuel efficient that contradicted the airline's post-restructuring strategy to simply its fleet down to 4 types.
They were. But they backed out last minute