American Airlines Boeing 767-300 at Dublin International Airport
American Airlines had plans to retire their Boeing 767-300 fleet in post-summer 2021 but decided to retire them in May 2020. However, with a significant reduce in operations, it looks like on the 30th of March, their Boeing 767-300ER registered N347AN took its last flight on behalf of their 17 Boeing 767‘s. American Airlines will be using 22 Boeing 787-8’s to replace these aircraft.
The history of the Boeing 767’s emerged in 1970 with the development of the Boeing 747. The Boeing 747 had low fuel consumption for its time and this large aircraft covered a long range. Many airlines were attracted to the features of this aircraft but wanted a twin aisle aircraft to replace the Boeing 707 at the time.
The development of the Boeing 767 began in 1972, two years after the Boeing 747. It had a brilliant range and better economics than the 747. Initially, Boeing planned to use the aircraft for regional routes but airlines preferred to use the aircraft for transcontinental routes instead.
In 1978, Boeing decided that the 767 would be a twin engined wide body aircraft. Similar, to their rivals’ Airbus a300. The Boeing 767 was very attractive to airlines as it was very efficient with fewer engines than the 747.
In 1978, Boeing revealed the beautiful Boeing 767-200. They even needed to add an extension onto the Everett factory for the production of this aircraft. American Airlines soon after decided to place 50 orders of the Boeing 767-200. In November 1982, the airline received 107 Boeing 767-200s.
They began using this aircraft for domestic routes within the US. However, in 1988, the Boeing 767-300 series was released with American Airlines being Boeing‘s launch customer of the aircraft. The 767 became to most popular aircraft used for transatlantic flights in the 90’s. In 1993, Boeing introduced the Boeing 767-300F, a freighter edition of the aircraft. The Boeing 767-400 was produced in 2000 along with military models with the Boeing 767-200. There has been talks about restarting the production of the Boeing 767 calling it the Boeing 767X. However, this has not been confirmed by Boeing.
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