American Premium 787s With Flagship Business Suites: Coming Soon

Here’s an exciting update, as it looks like American’s new business class product may be just weeks from debuting. I wrote about this some time back, but we now have a better sense of the timeline, including which routes are expected to be first.

American’s delayed Boeing 787s may be flying soon

While American already has a fleet of 59 Boeing 787s, the airline hasn’t taken delivery of a new wide body aircraft in nearly two years, since May 2023. The airline has an additional 30 787-9s on order — what’s exciting about these upcoming aircraft is that they’re supposed to be ultra-premium, featuring just 244 seats.

In early 2024, the plan was for American to take delivery of the first of these new aircraft in the summer of 2024, and for them to enter service as of October 2024 (and that already represented a delayed timeline). Unfortunately that didn’t actually materialize, due to Boeing’s issues.

In April 2024, American revealed that these planes were delayed indefinitely, and there was no timeline for when they would enter service. While we’ll see how this evolves, it sounds like there might be a positive update. @xJonNYC reports that American is expected to get its first two new Dreamliners in April 2025, and they should enter service not too long after being delivered.

One hears AA is beginning to look at extending the lifespan of the 777-200 fleet. No idea what the threshold is but I'd imagine they're looking at the oldest aircraft going in for heavy check to get an estimate for review Also, 11 787s expected this year, starting with two in April— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 11:09 AM

While this is of course subject to change, it’s suggested that the first route will be between Chicago (ORD) and Los Angeles (LAX), as of somewhere around June 6, 2025. For what it’s worth, the 787-9 is scheduled on the route as of June 5. Then after an initial period of crew familiarization and working out any kinks, the plane is expected to fly from Chicago to London (LHR) as of some date not too long after that.

Thinking ORD-LAX followed by ORD-LHR at first.— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 2:56 PM

One notices that one of the ORD-LAX flights switches to 789 around June 6 or so, BUT, this is not new/unusual for this route to get a 789 and at this juncture no reason whatsoever to assume that that is the date that this route gets 789P vs just that frequency going 789.— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 10:31 AM

At least that’s the best guess that we have as of now. Let me emphasize that as of now all of these routes still show the old 787-9 seat map, so obviously this hasn’t been finalized, or at least hasn’t been announced to the public. That being said, @xJonNYC tends to know what he’s talking about, and what current thinking is at airlines.

American is of course far from being the only carrier impacted by Boeing’s ongoing delivery delays. Arguably there are even bigger implications for Saudi Arabian airline startup Riyadh Air, which has had to delay its launch due to 787 delivery delays.

American Flagship Business Suites will finally roll out

American taking delivery of 787s will of course allow the airline to expand capacity in long haul markets, which is a good thing, especially since the deliveries will happen ahead of summer. However, arguably what’s much more exciting is that these planes will offer improved cabins, and a less dense layout.

For example, while American’s existing 787-9s have 30 business class seats, these jets will have 51 business class seats. Not only that, but these planes will feature the carrier’s all-new passenger experience, including the new Flagship Business Suites, as well as the front row Flagship Suite Preferred product. These seats will be based on the Adient Ascent platform, the same you’ll find on the 787-9s operated by Qatar Airways and Hawaiian Airlines.

American’s 777-300ERs will also be reconfigured with these new cabins, and at that point, international first class will be eliminated. While those planes were initially supposed to be reconfigured as of early 2025, that project has now been delayed until late 2025.

So with the current timeline, it sounds like the new passenger experience will first debut on newly delivered 787-9s, and then on reconfigured 777-300ERs.

Bottom line

American Airlines’ new premium Boeing 787s have been experiencing delivery delays, with the timeline for these planes being in limbo. While we’ll see if this sticks, it appears that two 787s could be delivered in April 2025, and enter service not long after that. The current thinking is that they’ll initially fly out of Chicago (ORD), with domestic familiarization flights to Los Angeles (LAX), followed by long haul flights to London (LHR).

I’m hoping this timeline is realistic, since it would be great to finally see the debut of American’s new Flagship Business Suites. These cabins will also eventually be installed on 777-300ERs, though only as of later this year, best case scenario.

What do you make of American potentially taking delivery of new 787s soon?