American Airlines suspends US-Spain flight due to Boeing 787 delays

American Airlines Group Inc. will temporarily suspend a route between the US and Spain because of ongoing delays in the delivery of Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners. 

Service between Philadelphia and Madrid will stop throughout May and early June, American said in a statement Friday. The carrier is contacting customers booked on the affected flights to make new travel arrangements.

American and some other carriers have struggled for several years with delayed deliveries of the twin-aisle Dreamliner, which American last month blamed for causing “significant reductions to our planned long-haul flying.” Boeing once again paused handovers in February over documentation issues before resuming earlier this month.

“We continue to work with our customers, including American Airlines, on delivery timing and deeply regret the impact to their operations,” Boeing said in a separate statement. “We remain focused on driving stability in our production system, including closely partnering with our suppliers to address industry challenges to meet our customer commitments.”

American’s next scheduled 787 Dreamliner would be two years late if Boeing handed over the plane this month, the airline said. At the end of 2022, Fort Worth, Texas-based American was operating 33 787-8 aircraft and 22 787-9 variants. It’s scheduled to receive four of the planes this year and 12 in 2024. 

Boeing earlier suspended Dreamliner deliveries in May 2021 to address structural glitches, and didn’t resume them until August 2022.

The suspended route was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.