American Airlines flew Airbus A319 registration N823AW from Phoenix to Roswell, New Mexico on Wednesday night to be stored. According to aviation watchdog JonNYC, this aircraft is being returned to its lessor and leaving the fleet, even though American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said last year that they weren’t planning to retire any of their current mainline aircraft.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 2:27 AM
This is lease return— no idea why that one in particular.
Recall during investor day last year Isom said no mainline retirements before 2030 so something changed— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
That was the end of a full day for the Airbus A319, which began in Washington D.C. and included the diversion of a Charlotte to Des Moines flight to Omaha. It appears after finally making it to Des Moines that it was ferried to Phoenix before making its retirement voyage to the desert.
The aircraft was originally delivered to America West Airlines in March 2001, and made the journey with America West management through their takeover of US Airways and then American Airlines. It’s a 24-year old plane that was never given a true American Airlines interior, just new seats and overhead bin doors (not larger overhead bins).
The plane has been through a lot over the years, as JonNYC reminds – including being “kinda trapped by quarantine” in El Salvador at the start of the pandemic.
From my archives, the 800 series: N823AW Airbus A319-132 between flights at San Jose International KSJC in March 2021. #avgeek #planespotting pic.twitter.com/2sspfmGwTV
— Doug Kempf (@dougkempf) November 15, 2022
N823AW/1463 Airbus A319-132 American Airlines pic.twitter.com/JFy1zbtlXw
— Hugo Roberto Cabral Strata (@StrataCabral) July 20, 2023
It’s unclear what motivated this plane’s return in particular, representing a shift from the airline’s prior guidance, but it seems notable to me that American Airlines has also frozen its flight attendant hiring for the summer, cancelling interviews and cancelling on aspiring cabin crew who expected to join the ranks of the carrier. They say they had simply met their planned hiring goals for the year.
They’re protesting enough to avoid the narrative of a problem that they’re arguing they just regularly schedule interviews knowing that they won’t actually keep the appointments. Something appears to be up here.
American Airlines Planes Parked In Tulsa, March 2020
American Airlines has been talking about adding first class seats to its Airbus A319s for years, but put off the prototype for this until the end of 2025 as well. During the day on Friday, American Airlines stock fell below its lowest point reached during the Covid-19 pandemic.