Ongoing quality control issues at Boeing have forced American Airlines to cut three long-haul routes out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport later this year.
The three routes on the chopping block are between DFW and Dublin, Ireland; Rome, Italy; and Kona, Hawaii.
The two European routes will end on October 26 but will return in the summer of 2025, when American Airlines anticipates it will acquire new aircraft, per The Dallas Morning News. According to American Airlines, it has ordered 260 new Boeing jets for next year, and a number of existing orders are pending. The flight to Kona International Airport will not run during this winter.
“We’re making these adjustments now to ensure we’re able to re-accommodate customers on affected flights,” said Andrea Koos, a spokesperson at the Fort Worth-based airline, per DMN. “We’ll be proactively reaching out to impacted customers to offer alternate travel arrangements. We remain committed to our customers and team members and mitigating the impact of these delays while continuing to offer a comprehensive global network.”
Several factors have contributed to delays in the delivery of the brand-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, beginning with enhanced inspection processes by a number of federal agencies after a series of mishaps this year.
In January, a door plug on a Boeing 737 Max blew off during takeoff, prompting an ongoing probe. The exact cause of the incident has not been established, but it is believed that technicians working on the aircraft did not follow established procedures and failed to install the bolts that secure the plug in place, as covered by The Dallas Express.
The quality issues led to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announcing that he would resign at the end of this year. Several other high-ranking Boeing officials will also leave the company in response to wide-ranging issues.
Boeing announced the delivery of 83 aircraft in the first quarter ending on March 31 and a backlog of over 5,600 airplanes. According to Boeing CFO Brian West, the slowdown has — at least in part — been by design.
“We won’t rush or go too fast,” West said, per CNBC. “In fact, we’re deliberately going slow to get this right. And we are the ones who made the decision to constrain rates on the 737 program below 38 per month until we feel like we’re ready. And we’ll feel the impact of that over the next several months.”
The delays and quality control issues with the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft also led to American Airlines changing its orders and upgrading some of them to the newer Boeing 737 Max 10, according to a Bloomberg report. Nevertheless, American Airlines CFO Devon May said at a recent quarterly earnings call that the delays would not impact the company as severely as some airliners as the company is not as dependent on receiving new aircraft as some competitors, DMN reported.
“I can’t tell you if they’re making progress or not because it’s all actions that matter, not words, and we’re continuing to work with them,” American CEO Robert Isom added, per DMN. “We’ll do everything we can to support Boeing. We need them to be successful in the long run.”