American Airlines is one of the world's largest carriers by fleet size, with data made available by ch-aviation showing that it has 1,002 planes at its disposal.
These come in all different shapes and sizes, with the carrier's mainline fleet consisting of narrowbodies and widebodies from both sides of the industry-dominating Airbus-Boeing manufacturing duopoly. Its most numerous type is the Boeing 737-800.
These single-aisle twinjets account for around 30% of American Airlines' fleet, and offer an ideal compromise between range and capacity that makes them a good fit for most domestic and short-haul international routes.
In this article, we will crunch the numbers and examine the current usage patterns concerning the Boeing 737-800 at American Airlines in order to establish its importance at the carrier.
American Airlines' Boeing 737-800 fleet in a nutshell
Current data from ch-aviation shows that American Airlineshas a whopping total of 303 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in its fleet at present.
They have an average age of 15.4 years old, putting them just above the fleet-wide mean of 13.5 years, and the vast majority (288, or around 95.05%) are listed as being active at the time of writing.
Of the 15 inactive examples, 14 are said to be undergoing maintenance procedures, while one (N315PE) is stored at Austin Bergstrom Airport (AUS).
It is rather apt that the Boeing737-800 is the most numerous mainline aircraft type at American Airlines, given that this model is also the best-selling version of the US planemaking juggernaut's 737NG ('Next Generation') series.
Indeed, Boeing's data shows that, of the 737NG's 7,114 deliveries (including private and military units), 4,989 are examples of the 737-800, with deliveries as recent as 2019.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft delivered to American Airlines are specifically known as the 737-823, with the '23' suffix being the manufacturer's customer code for the Fort Worth-headquartered 'big three' US legacy carrier and oneworldfounding member.
Boeing introduced these as early as 1956 to expedite the identification of aircraft ordered for specific carriers, but they have since been phased out.
American Airlines' Boeing 737-800s, which are its third-oldest active narrowbodies by average age behind the AirbusA319-100 (21 years old) and the A320-200 (24 years old), were delivered to the carrier across a period that spanned almost 19 years.
The first of these popular twinjet aircraft (N901AN) came onboard in February 1999, and the most recent delivery (N359PX) was in December 2017.
The world's largest operator of the Boeing 737-800
A key statistic that serves to underline and emphasize the importance of the Boeing 737-800 at American Airlines is the fact that the carrier is by far the world's largest operator of the Boeing 737-800.
Indeed, its current fleet of 303 examples of the type puts it almost 100 ahead of second-placed Ryanair, which has 205 units at its disposal. The Irish low-cost carrier sits just ahead of Southwest, which has 203.
Elsewhere in the US, fellow US legacy carrier United Airlines has the fourth-largest Boeing 737-800 fleet in the world, with 141 examples, while the country's third and final 'big three' operator, Delta Air Lines, operates a comparatively modest fleet of 77 units.
Other airlines located around the world with three-figure totals when it comes to their respective Boeing 737-800 fleets include the likes of China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Malta Air, Shandong Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines.
According to ch-aviation, American's all-time fleet of Boeing 737-800s actually consists of a grand total of 305 aircraft, with two examples having already left the carrier's fleet.
Both of these (N977AN and N978AN) joined American Airlines in December 2001, with the former being written off in December 2009 after crashing at Norman Manley International Airport (KIN) in Kingston, Jamaica. As pictured below, the aircraft suffered a runway excursion while landing in adverse weather.
Meanwhile, the latter of these two aircraft served American Airlines for its entire operational career, racking up 56,494 flight hours and 23,340 cycles in the process.
Historical fleet data made available by Planespotters.net shows that, after just under 19 years serving the US legacy carrier, it was withdrawn from use in September 2020. It was stored in Tulsa and then in Roswell, where it was broken up in 2022.
What's it like onboard American Airlines' Boeing 737-800s?
According to data from ch-aviation, American Airlines configures all 303 of its Boeing 737-800 with the same 172-seat configuration.
This layout consists of two classes of travel, with aeroLOPA noting that the best seats in the house are the 16 domestic first class recliners at the front of the aircraft. Laid out four-abreast in the classic 2-2 configuration, these seats offer their occupants the following dimensions:
- Pitch - 37 inches.
- Width - 20 inches.
- Recline - Five inches.
While the front row of this cabin offers additional legroom, aeroLOPA does highlight the fact that passengers should be aware that "there are no footwell cut-outs at the base of the forward bulkheads."
In-seat power outout in domestic first class onboard American Airlines' 737-800s comes in the form of universal AC and USB-A sockets, which may come in handy given the absence of personal IFE screens.
As for economy class onboard American's 737-800s, passengers seeking a bit of extra legroom may want to consider paying the premium for Main Cabin Extra seats.
There are 24 of these onboard the aircraft in four rows of six seats, split between 12 at the front of the economy cabin and 12 in the overwing exit rows. These seats offer 33 and 37 inches of pitch respectively, compared to the standard 30.
The 132 standard economy class seats that comprise the Main Cabin section of the aircraft onboard American Airlines' Boeing 737-800s are, much like those in the Main Cabin Extra zones, examples of the Collins Meridian model.
They are 17.5 inches wide and offer two inches of recline, compared to the three offered in Main Cabin Extra. In both cases, all seats have universal AC and USB-A sockets.
Where does American Airlines fly its Boeing 737-800s?
This year, current scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that American Airlines is operating a grand total of 425,589 flights with its Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Collectively speaking, these services will offer 73,201,308 seats and 68,965,964,864 available seat miles (ASMs). In 2024, American scheduled 420,345 737-800 flights, so this year's total is up by 1.25%.
This March, American Airlines has penciled in 34,486 flights with the Boeing 737-800, and these services will offer 5,931,592 seats and 5,797,995,128 ASMs when all is said and done.
The vast majority of these will serve destinations within the United States of America, as just 7,342 (around 21.29%) are on international routes. The share of ASMs on international routes (1,409,739,520) is around 24.31%.
Internationally speaking, American Airlines' top route in terms of Boeing 737-800 coverage connects its hub at Miami International Airport (MIA) with José Martí International Airport (HAV) in Havana, Cuba.
The carrier is serving this corridor five times a day in March 2025, with 155 flights in each direction. The route from Miami to Santo Domingo (SDQ) in the Dominican Republic is just behind, with 154 flights.
As for American Airlines' domestic usage of the Boeing 737-800, the type sees service on an interesting and diverse variety of routes.
Indeed, these range in length from 137 miles / 220 km (Chicago O'Hare to Grand Rapids) to 2,248 miles / 3,618 km (New York JFK to Las Vegas Harry Reid International). All of American's Boeing 737-800 flights are non-stop itineraries, with no one-stop routes served.
Cirium's data for March 2025 shows that American Airlines deploys its Boeing 737-800 aircraft from a wide variety of hub airports located all over the United States.
This month, its top facility for 737-800 flights is Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), with 6,490 departures, followed by the aforementioned Miami International, with 3,984. Chicago O'Hare rounds out the podium, with 2,839 flights.
In the news recently
Last week, an American Airlines Boeing 737-800 made headlines when it was involved in an alarming incident at Denver International Airport (DEN) in the US federal state of Colorado.
As my reported at the time, the aircraft (which bears the registration ) caught fire at Denver's gate C38 while on the ground after making a diversion. You can find out more about the incident in our video below.
Still, despite this incident, the 737-800 remains a versatile and reliable workhorse for American Airlines.
Whether used internationally or domestically on short routes of just a few hundred miles to transcontinental odysseys that exceed the 2,000-mile mark, the type provides the carrier with an ideal compromise between range and capacity.
With more than 300 examples still in American's fleet, and some as young as seven years, the 737-800 looks set to remain a common sight.
