American Airlines trails Delta and United in international capacity expansion. The airline maintains firm orders for only 19 Boeing 787-9 widebody aircraft. Competitors Delta and United each have over 100 widebody jets on order.
This order gap threatens American's competitive edge in long-haul international markets. American currently operates the youngest widebody fleet among the three major carriers. However, Delta and United plan to replace aging Boeing 767 and 777 models with their new orders. American lacks a similar pipeline for future fleet replacement and growth.