American Airlines announced an order for (2) 777-300ER aircraft during their earnings call today and I don’t think anybody saw that coming.  It’s a notable order for several reasons.  First, it’s the first order by a US airline for that aircraft.  Second, it’s the first airliner for AA to add that is for growth rather than replacement.  Third, it’s a new engine type for AA since the -300ER uses GE90 engines instead of the Rolls Royce Trent engines that AA has on its -200ER aircraft.   Finally, AA plans to receive these in 2012 and that’s pretty quick. 

Although these aircraft come with slightly better range than the -200ER, I think these are about capacity growth on some particular long(ish) routes.  These could be for any of 4 basic areas:  DFW or Chicago to London (I doubt this), DFW or Chicago to India (maybe), DFW or Chicago to Japan or China and, finally, NYC or Miami to South America (I doubt this.  My bet is on flights to India, Japan or China with India or Japan being a higher probability.  Time will tell.

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News by ajax