Exclusive Insight: American Airlines Strategy To Add More First Class Seats On Airbus A319s – View from the Wing

Exclusive Insight: American Airlines Strategy To Add More First Class Seats On Airbus A319s

by Gary Leff on January 31, 2024

For two years American Airlines has been talking about adding first class seats to Airbus A319 aircraft. That finally appears to be happening.

• The planes have only 8 seats up front, compared to 16 on Boeing 737s and 20 on Airbus A321neos.
• American has limited its revenue potential without enough first class seats to sell to passengers. It’s not that upgrades are tough on these planes – buying first class can be tough on many routes.
• However, I’ve said that this project had to wait until they’d finished retrofitting other domestic narrowbody planes (Airbus A321s). The ones American has had in its fleet are done, though they’ll need to make the A321s coming over from Alaska Airlines less comfortable still.

Legacy American Airlines Airbus A319 First Class, With Just 8 Seats And Entertainment Screens

American Plans To Add First Class Seats To Airbus A319s

It looks like the project to add seats – and make other changes – to some Airbus A319s is finally coming to fruition, as reported by aviation watchdog JonNYC.

AA: so the 32 legacy AA A319s are getting Oasis’d and there are rumors about the configuration. One part says the will get the “space flex” (or cabin-flex — whatever it’s called) lavs that go in the back in the galley area.
Some other parts of this, still working on that

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 31, 2024

But so yeah, I think the thrust being that adding these lavs in the back equals more first class up front
( so far I only feel the LAA 319s getting oasis + more F is confirmed) pic.twitter.com/2DRVbEQYiJ

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 31, 2024

While adding first class seats, American probably doesn’t want to give up total seats. Delta crams four more passengers into their A319s than American does today. So JonNYC says to expect smaller lavatories on those Airbus A319s in order to fit additional first class. I would also expect an inch to be shaved from first class and Main Cabin Extra legroom on these planes, personally. (Jon also says there’s talk of adding first class seats to some Airbus A321s, though this is not confirmed.)

Apparently, per JonNYC, American is only planning to retrofit a subfleet of their Airbus A319s – the ones that had been ordered by American Airlines before being taken over by US Airways management. These have seat back entertainment screens they can pull out.

Putting In American’s Less Comfortable Domestic Product

In 2017 American Airlines began taking deliveries of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. This was the first plane with the airline’s new signature domestic product: less legroom; less padding in the seats; no seat back entertainment screens; smaller lavatories.. but bigger overhead bins (which help board faster and reduce delays).

Over the coming years American began retrofitting their existing planes into this (“Oasis”) configuration. That meant removing seat back screens from planes that had them. This slapped together project didn’t even get a cabin mockup first. There was so little thought into the product that they had to re-retrofit planes that had already been retrofitted (“Project Kodiak”).

However Airbus A319s never received the treatment. When American Airlines ordered the planes, before being taken over by American, they were already in a dense configuration with more seats than US Airways had had. So they just updated the US Airways planes to match the American Airlines configuration (sans entertainment screens, and without taking the opportunity to add bigger bins).

Some Fleets Still To Be Converted To The Oasis Product

With legacy American Airlines A319s getting the Oasis treatment and more first class seats, that will leave a couple of domestic fleets still untouched since the merger.

• American’s premium cross-country Airbus A321T planes, which is being prototyped now to add seats, remove seat back screens, and convert to a standard domestic product. It’s expected that new American Airlines A321XLR planes with flat bed business class and premium economy will fly similar routes that had been service by these aircraft in the plane.
• American’s basket of deplorable Airbus A320s that still have their old US Airways configuration. They got new seat covers in first class but beneath that are the old, dirty beaten up seats. They don’t have bigger overhead bins or true extra legroom ‘Main Cabin Extra’ seats either.

New Premium Strategy

When US Airways management took over the airline, they came from a carrier that didn’t sell nearly as many business class and first class seats, and when they did sell them it was because they were the low price leader. Their model was mass transportation, and the US Airways stock ticker had even been “LCC.”

A senior executive had told me, right after the merger, that the new premium Airbus A321T would have first class removed. Then they started selling those seats, so the product stuck around for a decade.

They removed business class seats from Boeing 777-200 aircraft. Their Boeing 787-8s have just 20 business class seats, and one is sometimes blocked off for crew rest. And these Airbus A319s have just 8 seats up front. Six years ago, Vasu Raja (now the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer) was complaining he didn’t have enough premium seats to sell.

However the airline has higher costs than a low cost carrier, and increasing costs from new labor deals. They need premium revenue. Both United and especially Delta have done better chasing by chasing premium revenue. And American has announced plans for premium-heavy retrofits of Boeing 777-300ERs and for premium-heavy new delivery Boeing 787-9 aircraft that will get business class suites with doors.

Credit: American Airlines

These new configurations, with fewer seats, also allow the planes to fly further making it more likely that American will add ultra-long haul destinations like Singapore and a return to Hong Kong.

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