American Airlines Quietly Orders Five More Airbus Jets—And Buys Two Used Boeing 777s

American Airlines exercised options for five more Airbus jets in October and committed to buy two used Boeing 777-200ERs in the fourth quarter. Those purchases weren’t announced in the earnings release. They’re disclosed in the airline’s new quarterly filing, which also updates when American expects the aircraft it already has on order. I’d been watching for a much larger long haul aircraft deal. During the carrier’s earnings call they said they were very close and it’s expected this year. So the two used 777 purchases are the only newly disclosed widebody commitments. In addition, we have committed to purchase two Boeing 777-200ER aircraft off-lease in the fourth quarter of 2026 Here’s the remaining new aircraft purchase commitments: Aircraft family Rest of 2026 2027 2028 2029 onward Total Airbus A320 family 7 27 31 100 165 Boeing 737 family 0 0 0 115 115 Boeing 787 family 0 6 3 10 19 Embraer E175 5 14 17 30 66 Total 12 47 51 255 365 The five Airbus options are additional orders. The previous quarterly filing already included six options exercised in July. October’s five are additional. The Airbus schedule changed as well: Remaining Airbus deliveries Prior filing New filing Remainder of 2026 15 7 2027 25 27 2028 36 31 2029 onward 91 100 Total remaining 167 165 American says it’s buying two 777-200ERs off lease. Meanwhile, the 787 schedule hasn’t changed at all. There are still 19 remaining: six in 2027, three in 2028 and ten later. The 115 remaining 737s are still all in 2029 and beyond. Embraer’s remaining regional jet total drops from 72 to 66, matching six E175 purchases during the quarter. Of 98 new aircraft scheduled across 2027 and 2028, just nine are widebodies. The other 89 are Airbus narrowbodies and Embraer regional jets. While we’re still expecting a widebody order for future deliveries, the near-term change in passenger experience will come from retrofitting planes. Narrowbodies will see additional first class and Main Cabin Extra seats, seatback screens and refurbished cabins largely beginning in 2028, and widebodies getting the airline’s new suites and better premium economy seats. Topics on this page