Chris Sloan/Airchive
Click the photo to jump right to pictures of the inaugural flight of American Airlines' 777-300ER jet.
Editor's Note: Chris Sloan, an aviation expert and the executive producer of the Travel Channel series "Airport 24/7: Miami," rode the inaugural flight of American Airlines' 777-300ER from Dallas to Sao Paulo at his own expense.
He was kind enough to share photos from the experience with us, as well as his take on the flight and what it means for American Airlines. You can read his story on the airline and flight below, check out photos of the inaugural flight, and find out even more about the experience on his blog, Airchive.com.
Click here to jump right to photos on board the jet >>
On January 31, 2013 American Airlines launched their first Boeing 777-300 ER into service with attention that rivaled any airline?s launch of a new type in recent memory. On the face of it, even though American became the first operator of the 777-300 in America, this event would almost seem overkill if for that reason alone.
After all, American began 777-200 flights back in 1999 and the first 777-300 was first delivered to an airline, Cathay Pacific back in May, 1998. The first 777-300ER entered service nearly 10 years ago with Air France. Boeing?s two stretch variants of their venerable cash cow, the 777, easily have become the type?s most popular versions with over 680 orders and deliveries between them out of the entire 777 program?s 1,380 orders and deliveries (as of December, 2012). I
n an era of smaller airliners, American ?inaugurated the 777-300, the largest new airliner by a U.S. carrier since the last Boeing 747-400s entered service with U.S. airliners in the late 1990s.
This inaugural, flight 963, from Dallas/Ft. Worth to S?o ?Paulo, Brazil in the author?s view is one of the most significant in the airline industry in years because it is about something much bigger than just the launch of a new airliner, it?s about the re-birth of a proud American institution that happens to bear the name of our country ? American Airlines.
American Airlines problems are well known. After becoming the world?s largest airline with its 2000 acquisition of TWA, the 2000s were not kind at all to the Silver Bird. TWA and American merged during an economic downturn and by most accounts, the merger was anything but an unqualified success. American shed most of TWA?s assets, routes, staff, and many of its aircraft.
On September 11th, 2 of American?s airliners, their crew, and passengers were forever lost in the atrocities of this horrible day. As if things couldn?t get any worse, the world?s airline industry hemorrhaged with the U.S. legacy carriers losing more money during this time then they had profited in their entire history. All of them declared Chapter 11, with the exception of American. Under the category of ?no good deed goes unpunished?, this decision would come back to haunt American for years. The competitors were able to re-organize, upgrade service, rebrand their images, get their costs under control, renew their fleets, expand their route structure, and finally in the case of Continental/United and Delta/Northwest consolidate into mega-carriers that dwarfed American.
American was left with a barrage of serious problems: a revolving door in the executive ranks, fractious management and labor relations, dwindling market share, increasingly massive financial losses as their competitors recorded profits, devastating operational problems of which many were self-inflicted, an aging fleet, outdated and stripped down in-flight passenger service, soaring operating expenses, declining bookings, and a very unsympathetic press that at times almost seemed on a witch hunt.
Like Pan Am and other failed airlines there were a few bright spots: the extremely profitable Latin American hub, the North Atlantic / London Heathrow joint-venture with British Airways, the strong and dominant hubs particularly at DFW and Miami, strength on the highly profitable trans-continental services particular JFK-LAX, and many proud employees across all positions who still believed their company could once again live up to American?s 1980s advertising claim that they were ?Something Special in the Air?.
But the headwinds seemed to far outweigh the tailwinds and finally on November 29, 2011 American filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy becoming the last U.S. legacy carrier to do so. On top of that, US Airways began aggressively pursuing a merger, securing an agreement with the pilots unions. Then came the 2012 ?Summer of Discontent? with flight cancellations and operations disruptions that sent customers into the arms of their competitors and who can forget the seats onboard a few 757s becoming unbolted during flights. It would have been understandable for the once proud Eagle to fold its wings. If the one unthinkable collapses of majors like Pan Am and Eastern occurred, could American meet the same fate?
It may be hard to remember, but since the beginning of commercial aviation: American was an innovating pace setter in the industry, and generally a profitable one at that. In many ways, American virtually wrote the history of the airline industry: American introduced the airliner that changed aviation, the Douglas DC-3. The first non-stop transcontinental services were flown by American in 1953 and then they pioneered the first regularly scheduled domestic jet services in 1959. Their legendary CEO C.R. Smith, along with an American 707 Astroliner, appeared on the cover of Time Magazine for this honor.
American was the launch customer for other airline types such as the Douglas DC-10 (which was based on their specifications) and the blazingly fast Convair 990. American even leased to NASA and maintain the 747s used to ferry the Space Shuttle. Of even greater significance, American introduced the first airline computer reservation system, Sabre, back in 1961. In 1981, they created the world?s first frequent flyer program, still known as AAdvantage. Under their controversial but genius CEO Robert Crandall, American became the leader in dynamic pricing and computerized yield management as well as cost control, which made the airline very profitable. They were even the first airline to introduce a wireless app back in 1999 on the Palm Pilot, long before they were in vogue. Along the way, they acquired numerous airlines such as Trans Caribbean, AirCal, RenoAir, and finally TWA.
With that spirit of innovation and comeback even in the face of severe turbulence, American chose to move forward even before the Chapter 11 filing. On January 19, 2011 American became the first U.S. airline to order the Boeing 777-300 ER, the world?s most successful twin-engine airliner. Initially ordering 2 and then upping the order to 10 with options to covert other Dash 200s, AA would initially use the 777-300 ER on super high density premium routes to South America and London from their major hubs at DFW, MIA, LAX, ORD, and JFK. London Heathrow was announced as the initial destinations, but perhaps in a nod to the importance of Latin America and particularly economically booming Brazil, S?o Paolo became the inaugural destination.? The first 2 777-300ERs delivered are scheduled to only be deployed on this route through March until London Heathrow is added until March.
On July 20, 2011 American ordered $13 billion worth of 460 narrow-body Boeing and Airbus aircraft, the largest commercial aircraft order in history. This fleet renewal, designed to replace the aging MD-80s, 757s, and 767-200s, consists of 200 aircraft from the Boeing 737 family: The 737-700, 800, 900ER, and the new ultra fuel-efficient 737 Max (which it launched). From Airbus, a company previous management had vowed never to do business with again, American ordered 260 aircraft from the Airbus A320 family including the 320, 320 Neo, and new 321 which would become the new Transcontinental Flagship with a game changing cabin experience?beginning in November, 2013.
Reportedly, the airline gained even better terms in negotiations during bankruptcy. Even after the bankruptcy filing AA continued other upgrades such as Wi-Fi across the domestic fleet and international satellite Wi-Fi for international flights, new Boeing Sky Cabin equipped 737s at the rate of approximately 3 per month, Samsung Galaxy tablets for use by premium passengers for in-flight entertainment and by flight crew for a myriad of flight information, in-fight streaming of movies and video content, and innovative new pricing options called ?Choice?.
The long in the tooth vintage 1980s and 90s era cabins received much attention as well new extended legroom Main Cabin Extra, a new transcontinental Flagship Business and First Class product with lie-flat seats, a new long-haul Business and First Class product debuting on today?s 777-300 flight, and new leather seats in economy. Power on demand throughout all new aircraft and cabins would become the exception rather than the rule. American also confirmed its order for the arrival of 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners commencing in 2014-15.
Unlike many airlines that wait for exiting from bankruptcy before announcing upgrades, American announced many of these changes from the outset of its reorganization and continued throughout the proceedings even during the USAirways merger discussions.
Almost 2 years after placing the order, on December 11, 2012 Boeing delivered the first 777-323ER to American. The plane, sans fanfare was ferried in its still anonymous scheme from Everett?s Paine Field to the DFW base and quickly placed in a hanger. A second 777-300ER (N718AN) was delivered quietly on December 19th with the next 8 following in 2014.
These planes were delivered a bit late, reportedly due to the new Zodiac UK First Class seats not being ready in time postponing the inaugural from early January 2013 to January 31. A 3rd 777-300ER was delivered in early January while its stable mates made a few proving trips, including the MIA hub to test the IFE and Satellite Wi-Fi.
After a tough fall, American began to gather momentum in its operational and financial results. It reported revenue of $24.9 billion in 2012, the highest in company history and a full-year operating profit of $494 million, excluding special items, a $749 million improvement over 2011. These were impressive, especially given the operational issues of the Summer and Fall and losses cased by Hurricane Sandy.
Now read about the unveiling of American Airlines' new brand >
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/significance-of-american-airlines-777-300er-2013-2
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