American Airlines Unveils Unique Airbus A321 Today: First Ex-Alaska Jet That Diverges From Rest Of Fleet
When Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America, the all-Boeing airline took over a fleet of Airbus planes. American Airlines took 10 of the Airbus A321neos. And they aren’t waiting to convert the planes to an American Airlines interior. They are going to start flying a sub-fleet that doesn’t match the rest of the American Airlines standard interior.
These are relatively new aircraft. Only four of them had ever even flown for Virgin America, with the other six having entered service after Alaska acquired the carrier.
As flagged by aviation watchdog JonNYC, who originally broke news of the plan for American to acquire these planes, American puts the first one into service today.
Looks like the first ex-Alaska aircraft will enter service tomorrow N956XV. Should leave San Antonio today to Miami and start flying tomorrow
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) April 3, 2024
Here are planned flights for the aircraft, though this is subject to change:
The ex-Alaska Airlines Airbus A321s have fewer seats than in American’s configuration. American squeezes more seats into the plane. So while there are fewer first class seats (16 instead of 20) making upgrades more difficult on these aircraft, there’s generally more legroom at each seat on the ex-Alaska planes throughout the cabin.
Here are details of the aircraft:
- In economy you’ll find 31 or 32 inches from seat back to seat back not just 30 inches) and for first class
- In main cabin extra, American Airlines planes can have as few as 33 inches between seats. The Alaska planes have at least three more inches than that.
- In first class there may be up to four more inches between seats
Credit: Alaska Airlines
Here’s an internal review of American’s plan for the aircraft. They have photoluminescent emergency lighting that need to be charged at the beginning of each day. Forgetting to do this could lead to a short delay for the first flight of the day.
American Airlines Airbus A321
These planes lack larger overhead bins, so there will be more gate checking of carry-on bags. If you have a carry-on to stow in the overhead, make sure you’re at the gate at the start of boarding, and queueing up as soon as your boarding group is called.
Once peak summer season has passed, American will reconfigure these planes to match their standard interior with less comfortable seating, more first class seats, and larger bins.
