American A319s Getting Extra First Class Seats, Tighter Cabin
Whereas the precise timeline stays to be seen, it’s fairly sure at this level that American Airways might be making some adjustments to the structure of a few of its Airbus A319s.
The fundamentals of American’s Airbus A319 fleet
For some background, American has a fleet of 133 Airbus A319 plane, which is the smallest mainline plane within the fleet. These planes at the moment all characteristic 128 seats, together with eight firstclass seats and 120 financial system seats.
Most of these plane had been initially delivered to US Airways again within the day (going again to the late Nineties), whereas 32 had been delivered to American inside the previous decade. These A319s that had been initially delivered to American are at the moment the perfect “normal” slender physique plane within the provider’s fleet by way of interiors.
That’s as a result of the 32 plane all characteristic seat again leisure at each seat, as these planes had been delivered at a time when American needed to enhance the passenger expertise and develop into extra premium. That was earlier than American launched its “Oasis” configuration, whereby the airline determined towards providing seat again leisure at each seat, as a substitute investing in Wi-Fi and streaming leisure.
Presumably American’s plan is to finally retire a lot of its A319 fleet, provided that a few of the former US Airways planes are 25+ years previous at this level. Nonetheless, it appears like American is planning some updates to its newer A319s.
American will reconfigure 32 Airbus A319s
The at all times knowledgable @xJonNYC experiences that American has plans to reconfigure its 32 Airbus A319s that had been initially delivered to American:
- These planes can have their complete capability elevated from 128 seats to 132 seats
- On the similar time, American will add a row of firstclass, growing firstclass capability from eight seats to 12 seats
- American will presumably add a row of seats by barely decreasing legroom in components of the cabin, and likewise by introducing toilets behind the aircraft that take up much less house
- This configuration of 132 seats would precisely match what you discover on Delta’s A319s, which have the identical structure
- When American reconfigures these A319s, they’ll characteristic the usual “Oasis” configuration, which means American will take away seat again televisions from the aircraft, and introduce the identical inside you discover on different plane
The precise timeline for this taking place stays to be seen. It’s not shocking that American has waited to do that, because the precedence was first to reconfigure all 737s, then to reconfigure all A321s, and now American is clearly taking a look at its A319s.
Clearly these planes being reconfigured is a blended bag. On the one hand, it’s unhappy to see American’s nicest normal home plane being reconfigured to take away TVs. Alternatively, it’s good to see a row of firstclass added, because the A319 has been an extremely powerful aircraft not only for upgrades, however in some instances even for purchasing a firstclass seat.
Now we’ll simply have to attend and see when this course of truly begins.
Backside line
American is planning some adjustments to its latest Airbus A319s, whereby the jets will see a row of firstclass seats added, with out financial system capability being lowered. Together with this, we’ll see American rip out the TVs which might be at the moment accessible all through the cabin.
These adjustments are solely coming to the 32 A319s that had been initially delivered to American, whereas lots of the remaining A319s will presumably be retired within the close to future, provided that a few of them are 25+ years previous. We should always be taught extra particulars in regards to the course of within the close to future.
What do you make of American’s plans to reconfigure Airbus A319s?