It’s a giant day on the subject of the way forward for American’s fleet (I imply, not that there’s all that a lot to get enthusiastic about, although the numbers are spectacular). American has simply positioned an order for 260+ jets from Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer. Individually, American has introduced plans to put in extra top notch seats on its smallest mainline jets, to fulfill evolving demand.
American refreshing Airbus jets with extra top notch seats
American has revealed plans to refresh its Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 fleet beginning in 2025. With this mission, we’ll see the planes get energy at each seat, bigger overhead bins, and new seats with up to date trim and end.
Maybe most enjoyable of all is that every of those planes will likely be getting an additional row of top notch seats:
- Airbus A319s will go from eight top notch seats to 12 top notch seats
- Airbus A320s will go from 12 top notch seats to 16 top notch seats
American claims that that is in response to clients’ growing demand for premium cabin seats. A 33-50% enhance in top notch seats on these plane is important. Hopefully it results in extra AAdvantage upgrades, although in actuality lots of unsold top notch seats these days are upgraded with money.
American additionally claims that premium seating within the fleet is anticipated to develop by greater than 20% by 2026. Nevertheless, it’s not clear to me if that’s a share of complete seats, or simply an absolute enhance. Sadly American doesn’t have plans to extend top notch capability on its Boeing 737s (800s and MAX 8s) or Airbus A321s (ceos and neos) past the present 16 and 20 seats, respectively.
For context on how these planes match into American’s fleet, the airline at the moment has 133 Airbus A319s and 48 Airbus A320s. Most of those have been inherited by American in the course of the merger with US Airways. The A319s are a median of almost 20 years outdated, whereas the A320s are a median of almost 20 years outdated. Whereas they’re used all through North America, you’ll discover these jets probably the most within the Northeast.
Anticipate Airbus A319 & A320 cabins to get tighter
On steadiness, updates to those plane are in all probability excellent news, when it comes to extra top notch seats, constant energy ports, and bigger overhead bins. For the previous a number of years, American’s focus has been on having a constant Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 fleet, and shortly we’ll see the airline concentrate on its A319s and A320s.
The factor to bear in mind is that as American reconfigures these plane, we’re not solely seeing extra top notch seats put in, however we’re additionally seeing total capability enhance, that means that seating will get tighter.
For instance, Airbus A319s at the moment have 128 seats, comprised of eight top notch seats and 120 financial system seats. Capability will quickly enhance to 132 seats, equivalent to what you’ll discover on Delta, the place there are 12 top notch seats and 120 financial system seats.
I think about it’ll be the identical story on A320s, with American following Delta’s lead. American’s A320s have 150 seats, comprised of 12 top notch seats and 138 financial system seats. Capability will in all probability enhance to 157 seats, together with 16 top notch seats and 141 financial system seats.
No surprise Delta does higher with income — the airline is nice at cramming seats into (largely very outdated) planes, however temper lighting and seat again leisure make folks neglect about that. American may be taught a factor or two.
Backside line
In 2025, American will likely be including a row of top notch seats to its Airbus A319s and A320s, that means the planes could have 12 and 16 top notch seats, respectively. These planes will get full cabin overhauls, together with bigger overhead bins, energy at each seat, and a tighter cabin. American will have the ability to enhance the general capability of the cabin whereas additionally including a row of top notch seats.
These modifications are a combined bag, although on steadiness I’d think about this to be a optimistic improvement.
What do you make of American’s Airbus cabin modifications?
