American football team New England Patriots has acquired two former American Airlines Boeing 767-300ERs for travel to out-of-town games, Flight Fleets Analyzer shows.
ESPN broke the news on 8 August, reporting that the Patriots chose to acquire aircraft in response to increases in the cost of chartering aircraft.
The Patriots confirmed the acquisition to FlightGlobal, but declined to answer questions about whether the team will operate the aircraft or hire an outside provider.
The 767s are owned by a company called Team 125 Inc, operated by the New England Patriots LLC and financed by Kraft Group, a company led by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Fleets Analyzer shows.
American acquired the 767s new in 1991 and parked them in early 2016.
The aircraft have serial numbers 25193 (registration N366AA) and 25194 (registration N39367), and each had accumulated about 99,000h of flight time and about 16,000 cycles as of early 2016, Fleets Analyzer shows.
The 767s have market value of about $5.5 million, according to Fleets Analyzer.
On 8 August the Patriots posted on Twitter a computer-generated image of a 767 painted with the Patriot's team colors of red, white and blue. The aircraft has "Patriots" painted on the fuselage and five Vince Lombardi trophies painted on the tail, representing the Patriot's five Super Bowl wins.
The tweet includes the text "New airkrafts" in an apparent nod to owner Kraft.
New England Patriots' Twitter.com post.
The aircraft will be configured in an all-first class configuration and will operate out of TF Green airport near Providence, according to ESPN.
That airport is about 50km from the Patriot's home field of Gillette Stadium, which is in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
