--Eric
 
From my check airman friend: 
 
Partly true . All done now. They were A321 NXs since we haven't received our 1st XLRs yet. I was part of the initial cadre. Made 4 trips PHL-EDI  24 Ckps and tech pilots now trained21 round trips.
 
I'm on a trip that's going badly so only a few texts and photos from him. As soon as I can I'll call him and see what else he has to say. 
On 09/26/2025 4:06 AM EDT Karl L. Swartz via Mifnet <[email protected]> wrote:
 
 
ROFL! Tom, you know I can spot the WTFs even if I can’t solve the puzzle.
 
In this case I’m left with few explanations other than that AA is daft. Perhaps Eric can enlighten us, if there’s a sane explanation.
 
 -- Karl

On Sep 25, 2025, at 11:29 PM, Tom Ronell via Mifnet <[email protected]> wrote:


You seem to know why everybody is wrong - why don't you have an answer?


From: Karl L. Swartz via Mifnet <[email protected]>
To: Mifnet <[email protected]>
CC: Karl L. Swartz <[email protected]>
Date: 2025-09-26T06:18:19Z
Subject: [Mifnet đź›° 74331] Re: AA empty flights

Why? 120-minute ETOPS is sufficient for the North Atlantic, though 138-minute ETOPS closes a hole. There’s no need for 240-minute ETOPS over the Atlantic, and in conversations with Airbus I’ve been told they see no need for no more than 180 for the A321XLR.
 
 -- Karl

On Sep 25, 2025, at 11:06 PM, Tom Ronell via Mifnet <[email protected]> wrote:



Could this be an attempt to get from 180 to 240 ETOPs?


From: Karl L. Swartz via Mifnet <[email protected]>
To: Mifnet <[email protected]>
CC: Karl L. Swartz <[email protected]>
Date: 2025-09-26T05:58:10Z
Subject: [Mifnet đź›° 74329] Re: AA empty flights

AA didn’t use an A321XLR for the "qualification” flights so that’s not it.
 
As I noted, AA already has ETOPS-180 for the A321 for Hawaii, though only a subset of their fleet is ETOPS qualified. (In contrast, so far as I know, all of United’s current 737 fleet is ETOPS qualified.)
 
True, northern and western European destinations do not require ETOPS from the northeastern US, but it’s painful to do non-ETOPS.
 
 -- Karl

On Sep 25, 2025, at 10:39 PM, Tom Ronell via Mifnet <[email protected]> wrote:


Pethaps, since they were flying only to northern and western European destinations, they did not require ETOPS, as American does in order to go further south across the Atlantic. Or maybe they already had ETOPS qualification with those types from Hawaii and Caribbean/LatAm operations, respectively.

A321XLR may be considered a new airframe/engine combination from A321, for ETOPS purposes.




From: Karl L. Swartz via Mifnet <[email protected]>
To: Mifnet <[email protected]>
CC: Karl L. Swartz <[email protected]>
Date: 2025-09-26T05:07:07Z
Subject: [Mifnet đź›° 74327] Re: AA empty flights

I’d dismiss this story as nonsense had it not been published by reliable sources, rather than Simpleton Flying.
 
It still doesn’t make sense. United didn’t do anything like this when they started flying the 737 MAX most of the way across the Atlantic. Neither did JetBlue with their A321 flying to Europe.
 
ETOPS-proving might make sense, except AA already has 180-minute ETOPS on the A321 (for Hawaii)—and it didn’t stop them from flying a non-ETOPS A321 to Hawaii a decade ago:
 
…
 
This whole thing baffles me.
 
 -- Karl


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