FAA Inspectors Watched On As American Airlines’ Domestic Pilots Learned The Ropes Of Flying Across The Atlantic

Inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) watched on during a series of flights that American Airlines conducted as it trained its first domestic pilots in the intricacies of flying a single-aisle aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean.

Last month, American Airlines operated a total of 42 flights between Philadelphia and Edinburgh, Scotland, using a narrowbody Airbus A321 aircraft as it prepares to take delivery of a new long-range variant that will open up new transatlantic routes.

Getting its hands on the new long-range A321XLR is a pretty exciting prospect for American Airlines, but it comes with a fundamental problem – until now, the airline’s A320-series pilots have only operated domestic or short-haul international flights.

Flying long-haul international across the North Atlantic brings with it a whole new set of rules and procedures, as well as an operating environment that many of these pilots would never have experienced before.

But these empty flights that crisscrossed the Atlantic over the course of September weren’t to train the initial 45 so-called ‘line pilots’ who will regularly fly these aircraft, but just the check pilots.

“These training flights were a huge success,” explained Captain Josh Hall, American’s A320 fleet captain.

“This effort sets us up nicely to begin training our line pilots to fly the A321XLR over the North Atlantic, and it was only made possible by the hard work and professionalism of our check pilots, the FAA, and our A320 flight training and fleet technical teams.”

During these training flights, the check pilots got to grips with some of the unique challenges of flying across the Atlantic, notably the North Atlantic Track system, which the airline described as “a highway in the sky that changes daily based on wind conditions.”

The pilots also got to experience the different air traffic control procedures in use across the Atlantic, including the lack of radar-based air traffic control that they are more used to in the United States.

American Airlines is expected to have its first of 50 Airbus A321XLRs ready to fly by the end of this year, but the plane won’t be put into service flying the Atlantic on its first day.

Initially, the plane will operate a domestic service between New York JFK and Los Angeles before being deployed on longer routes… not that we know what those routes are.

With a maximum range of 4,700 nautical miles, the aircraft will open up brand new routes that would never have been commercially viable with a widebody jet, but American Airlines isn’t yet ready to reveal what long-haul destinations will be served by the A321XLR.

Unfortunately, the A321XLR’s entry into service with American Airlines has been slightly delayed because of delays with the new fully-flat Flagship Business Class seats.

This article was originally featured by PYOK.