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American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 5:05 am
by UAPilot7
Are American Airlines A300's still in operation? Because I could have sworn I saw one pulling up in the International Terminal of EWR!
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 5:08 am
by FLY777UAL
Yea...they'll be chuggin' along for a while...
FLY777UAL
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 5:33 am
by Guest
They still operate extensively. The international configuration goes between Europe and the US, while the aircraft in domestic configuration travel on the east coast and Caribbean, into MIA and San Juan.
Routes include:
ORD-MIA
LHR-JFK
BOS-ORL or CDG
BOS-LGW
SDQ-MIA
MIA-PAP
JFK-SDQ
MIA-SJU
MIA-BOS
JFK-POP
KIN-MIA
That is by no means a complete list, but it gives you an idea.
Hope this helps!
Fly US Airways
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 7:21 am
by American 767
That's right.
American still has 35 A300's in its fleet. Like you said they fly on the East Coast to/from MIA or JFK, and to London Heathrow from JFK. If you see an American A300 in Chicago then you can be sure it comes from and goes to Miami because from O'Hare there's only one point served on the A300, it's Miami. They'll still be around for a while, they are still young. The first one was delivered 10 years ago. They'll probably be around until the mid 2010's or so, when they'll have to replace them with new variants of the 767. Or maybe they'll decide to phase them out sooner. I hope they don't get rid of them too soon because I like the A300 (oh well I like all Airbus types) and I don't have that many occasions to be on it, these days there aren't so many A300's around. Who knows? They may order at any time a batch of 767-400's to replace the A300's. American is the only US airline that still operates the Airbus A300.
Ben Soriano
Brussels Belgium
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 7:33 am
by flyaa757
AA is the only US PASSENGER airline still operating the A300. FedEX operates a large fleet of A300-600Fs and UPS has ordered 30. In fact, AA was the only US airline to ever operate passenger A300-600Rs. All others(PA1, PA2, EA, CO, Capitol, Presidential, KW...Can anybody think of any others?) operated A300B2 and A300B4 aircraft. The -600Rs incorporate new avionics, technology, and offer increased range and more efficient engines. The -600R is still in production, but I believe that all remaining orders are for freighter aircraft. The last pax aircraft was supposed to be delivered to Thai last year. There is a new A300-600R operator currently flting into JFK. It is Guyana Airways(2000). I saw the a/c on Sat. It is in an all white scheme with only titles and a flag on the tail.
RE: Northeastern
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 11:55 am
by Cody
Northeastern International was also a US company that operated the A300 in 1984 and 1985.
AA's A300s
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 1999 12:23 pm
by Gnomon
Has anyone seen an AA A300 in the grey fuselage coating in which the fleet was delivered? The grey color came from an anti-corrosive Airbus used, but was replaced by another anti-corrosive agent on some aircraft that gave the aircraft the polished look shared by the rest of the fleet. A couple of years ago I flew from MIA to SJU and the round-trip was on A300s; outbound, the aircraft had a bare metal look, while the return was operated by one with the Alcon(?) agent on the skin.
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 1999 5:24 am
by Guest
I don't know what the breakdown is betwen the a-300's with the gray paint and the ones with the polished fuselage,but I do know that it's not that we're going back and stripipng the paint, to then polish the a/c .When American first got the airplane, Airbus would not deliver it without painting the whole exterior. Their reasoning was that the materials used for the outermost layer of skin would not look right. with only decals, something about the outer panels not matching colorwise.The problem was solved halfway through the delivery schedule and the last few a/c are not painted ,they are polished.It's interesting to note that while most of the fuselage on these newer airplanes is not painted , the entire tail is still painted grey, something about the composites used not being designed to be unpainted. Regards, Fernando
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 1999 6:17 am
by Transtar
Interesting....I remember reading an Aviation Week and Space Technology article back when they first delivered those AA A300-600Rs that stated that the grey scheme was originally adopted so that American could lease the aircraft out more easily then with the polished exterior.
Those A300-600Rs (at least at the beginning) were leased from Airbus Industries at a very reasonable price for (originally) solely Caribbean (sp?) destinations.
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 1999 6:53 am
by Guest
I could be wrong,TranStar but I'm fairly sure that was the correct info I had,and if changing livery(sp) quickly was a concern, seems that removing the decals and painting over the bare fuselage would be easier, no? I'll call M&E and see what I can dig up. Fernando
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 1999 6:37 am
by Transtar
Thanks Cubannair,
I read that article years and years ago (late 1980's?) from AW&ST. Post back if you find out anything further.
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 1999 9:28 am
by Guest
Yes, if you want to see a lot of them, you sholud come to Miami. Here they have daily flights to New York, Chicago, Puerto Rico and some other places. There are 35 of them flying for american and the oldest one that they have was delivered in 04/20/88 and the newest one was delivered on 02/19/93.
PT-BRA
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 1999 9:41 am
by doug
miami is the hub of the american a-300 flleet i would say that possibly 90% of them are here in miami.
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 1999 10:07 am
by Guest
I am in NYC right now, I flew from MIA to JFK earlier today on a AA A300.
American 767
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 1999 10:32 am
by LH423
You're technecally incorrect in your statement that AA is the the only US airline to operate the 300. FedEx now operates the world's largest fleet of A300s. Also DHL has orders for 30 A300s. Of course if you're referring to passenger 300s than you are correct in saying that AA is the only 300 operator in the US.
RE: American's A300's Still Operating?
Posted: Sat Jul 24, 1999 4:08 pm
by Guest
O.K. guys, here's the scoop, from the horse's mouth,(actually the captain I'm flying with this month,flew A300's before upgrading to MD11's, so he knows) At the start of A300 deliveries to AA, Airbus simply refused to sign off(accept responsability for) on an a/c that was not painted.Their reasoning being that Airbus used diffferent alloys for outer fuselage than Boeing and these had been "designed " with protective coating and paint in mind.They were concerned about corrosion since AA originally was to use the A300 for caribean flying almost exclusivelly.The first few a/c came with the "grey " paint scheme, but at some point Airbus saw that the polished fuselage would work and began deliveries w/out paint.As the original few aircraft went trough heavy maintenance,(c-checks)grey paint was removed and the a/c was polished. Also though it's true we have a lot of A300's in and out of MIA,you'll see them out of BOS and JFK even more ,where they're used for caribean and some domestic legs(BOS & JFK to MIA )Also a number of them were reconfigured as 3-class, premium market (Europe) aircraft, personal video screens in all seats , interactive games, etc.They are only used on JFK-LHR, BOS-ORY flts because of their relativelly short flying range. On schedules you'll see the designator AB6 for these. Fern@ndo