American Airlines
received two early Christmas presents this week: two new aircraft were added to the fleet. An Airbus A321NX landed in Charlotte, while a Boeing 737 MAX 8 landed in Dallas.

Christmas comes early

On Friday, American officially welcomed a shiny new Boeing 737 MAX 8 and an Airbus A321neo to its fleet.

Boeing 737 MAX 8: registration N357TY

According to delivery data from Flightradar24, the 737, registration N357TY and serial number 44505, completed several test flights over Seattle earlier this month; However, it left Boeing Field (BFI) on Friday and was destined for the Americans’ home in Texas.

AA9825 departed at 3:10 p.m. for the three-hour, 17-minute trip to the airline’s largest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), landing at 8:27 p.m. This is the 65th delivery of a 737 MAX 8 to American Airlines.

Airbus A321NX: registration N472AN

For Airbus lovers: The newest Airbus A321neo left Airbus’ US assembly line in Mobile, Alabama on Friday for a quick hop to the airline’s operating base at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), according to Flightradar24. The service, operating under AA9822, was pushed back from Mobile International Airport (BFM) at 1:36 p.m. and lasted just one hour and nine minutes before landing in Charlotte at 3:45 p.m. The aircraft has the serial number 12282.

Before delivery, the aircraft bore the French Airbus registration F-WZMY. This is the airline’s 73rd Airbus A321neo, but only the third airframe to be delivered this year.

Two of many new aircraft for American Airlines

While American is one of the world’s largest airlines by total number of daily flights, United Airlines is the world’s largest airline by the total number of aircraft in its fleet. However, American is on the airline’s trail, with several new aircraft slated for the airline’s fleet in the coming years.

While Simple Flying has already covered American Airlines’ various aircraft orders, data from ch-aviation shows that the airline currently operates 918 aircraft across 11 different aircraft types (excluding the airline’s regional subsidiaries).

At the moment, American Airlines
operates the Airbus A319-100, A320-200, A321-200, A321neo of the Airbus family, as well as the Boeing 737 MAX 8, 737-800, 777-200ER, 777-300ER, 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliner.

Almost 330 new aircraft are on order, including:

• 98 Airbus A321neos

• 50 Airbus A321XLRs

• 115 Boeing 737 MAX 10s

• 36 Boeing 737 MAX 8s

• 30 Boeing 787-9

Not yet intended for commercial operation

According to Flightradar24, the two new aircraft were not yet scheduled for commercial scheduled flights on Saturday. However, once these aircraft enter commercial service, they are expected to support the airline’s short-haul domestic and international networks, such as domestic flights in the United States as well as flights within the Caribbean and Latin America. Both aircraft remain on the tarmac at Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte Douglas in preparation for entry into scheduled service.

Earlier this month, another US airline reported United Airlines

also welcomed its 25th Airbus A321neo. The aircraft, registration number N44522, was delivered just days before the delivery of a second aircraft (N54525), which was assembled in Mobile prior to delivery to Star Alliance airline.