AA marks 100 years with special livery

American Airlines marked its 100th year of flight on April 15 by sending a Boeing 737-800 in a centennial paint scheme over the Chicago-to-St. Louis route that started the company in 1926. (news.aa.com) The airline began its anniversary campaign on January 5 and said the commemorative aircraft would be Boeing 737-800 registration N840NN, carrying a “100” logo and silver infinity-ring graphics. (news.aa.com) (airlinegeeks.com) American tied the flight number to its founding year with “AA1926,” and industry coverage this week said the airline was operating centennial flights between Chicago and St. Louis as part of airport events around the anniversary. (airdatanews.com) (news.aa.com) The route matters because April 15, 1926 was the date of the first regularly scheduled flight in American’s lineage, a mail run flown in a Douglas DH-4 biplane for Robertson Aircraft Corporation. (news.aa.com) (britannica.com) That mail carrier was folded into a wider consolidation of more than 80 small airlines in 1929 and 1930, and the company was reorganized as American Airlines, Inc. in 1934. (news.aa.com) The centennial livery is the most visible part of a year-long branding push. American said the “100” mark would appear across its fleet, airport signs, digital channels and limited-edition merchandise during 2026. (news.aa.com) (airlinegeeks.com) The Boeing 737-800 was a deliberate choice because it is one of the workhorses of American’s domestic network, the same short-haul system that connects Chicago and St. Louis today. (news.aa.com) (worldairlinenews.com) American now flies to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries as a founding member of the Oneworld alliance, a scale far removed from the single-bag airmail trip it traces to 1926. (oneworld.com) (news.aa.com) A century after that first mail flight, the anniversary aircraft put American’s origin story back on the same corridor where it began: Chicago to St. Louis, this time in polished aluminum and centennial branding instead of a biplane. (news.aa.com) (airlinegeeks.com)