Just 7 days later, American downgrades key domestic wide-body route

The network planning department at American Airlines has been quite busy the past few days.

On Dec. 9, the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier announced its schedule for summer 2023. It primarily consists of additional service on some bread-and-butter long-haul routes, as well as seven resumptions of key flights, such as Charlotte to Paris and Seattle to London.

While the focus of American's summer expansion is seemingly on long-haul service, the airline did make a notable adjustment to one of its longest domestic routes.

Specifically, the airline announced that it would deploy the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Anchorage, Alaska.

"For those looking to take in the majestic beauty of the last frontier, American will be upgauging its daily service between DFW and Anchorage (ANC) to a Boeing 787, connecting more customers with the great outdoors," American's announcement reads.

However, just one week later, the carrier is already rethinking its plan. American removed all wide-body service on the Dallas-Fort Worth and Anchorage route in the schedule it published Dec. 16, as first seen in Cirium timetables.

In the future, American exclusively plans to deploy the Airbus A321neo on the 3,043-mile route to Anchorage.

While the A321neo is one of American's newest single-aisle planes, its onboard experience is not nearly as comfortable as that of the Dreamliner. American's Dreamliners feature lie-flat business-class pods, premium economy recliners and large economy cabins that feature entertainment screens and power outlets.

The A321neo, on the other hand, doesn't offer any built-in entertainment options for the roughly seven-hour flight. Instead, travelers will need to stream content on their own devices by connecting to the onboard server.

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Of course, it's pretty rare for airlines to make such a dramatic change in equipment just one week after issuing a press release with a major announcement.

"We continue to evaluate our summer 2023 schedule and how we deploy our widebody aircraft so you may see small changes like DFW-ANC as we move in to the new year," an American Airlines spokesperson shared when asked about the flip-flop.

Unfortunately, American's statement isn't especially illuminating, so it's possible that other factors are at play here.

Perhaps the most obvious is that American realized it would prefer to deploy a twin-aisle plane on another long-haul route. While an A321neo can fly to Alaska, it can't operate on long-haul missions like a Dreamliner can.

It remains to be seen if American boosts an existing long-haul route or launches a new one, but the opportunity cost of flying a Dreamliner to Alaska might not have been worth it for the carrier.

It's also possible that American was hoping to secure a contract for carrying cargo on the Anchorage route. The Dreamliner has a much larger cargo capacity than the A321neo, so perhaps the airline was hoping to fill the belly of the plane with fresh fish and other items to and from Alaska.

Perhaps the airline's contract didn't materialize, or American realized it didn't need the additional cargo capacity of the Dreamliner.

There are plenty of other reasons that could explain the airline's flip-flop. Another reason could be that American continues to face delivery delays on Dreamliner aircraft.

Boeing stopped delivering 787s in October 2020 when quality issues were discovered in new aircraft rolling off the production line. Deliveries finally restarted in August, roughly two years later. During this time, American delayed new flights and reduced service on existing ones due to the lack of aircraft.

Whatever the actual reason, you won't be able to enjoy a lie-flat bed, premium economy recliner or seat-back entertainment if you're traveling with American this summer from Dallas to Alaska.