American Airlines retires the Airbus A300

DALLAS, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. air carrier American Airlines says it has completed its final flight using an Airbus A300, 21 years after the airline began using the craft.

Airline officials the last flight using an A300 landed shortly after midnight Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The Airbuses have been removed from American's fleet for several reasons, spokesman Tim Smith told the newspaper.

"One, we are in the process of cutting capacity," he said. "Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet."

Also, he told the Morning News, the A300s were being phased out because they require different kinds of training and maintenance than the other aircraft in American's fleet.

The newspaper said American's first shipment of 25 Airbus A300s came in 1988 and 1989, and it later bought another 10 aircraft, delivered between 1991 and 1993.