American Airlines is about to take the last standard domestic planes that still have seat back video screens, and rip those out. These Airbus A319s that were ordered before US Airways management took over are going to see more seats squeezed it, and they will get larger overhead bins. Aviation watchdog JonNYC reports that the first one will go in for prototyping the new cabin in the spring.
AA:
AA A319 will go in for Oasis prototype in Spring on ’25. This is for the group of AA A319’s , 32 of them, delivered around 2013
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 13, 2024
The retrofit of American Airlines Airbus A319s is a long time in coming. For three years they have been talking about adding first class seats to these 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, this project had to wait until they’d finished retrofitting other domestic narrowbody planes (Airbus A321s).
Legacy American Airlines Airbus A319 First Class, With Just 8 Seats And Entertainment Screens
American Plans To Add First Class Seats To Airbus A319s
American Airlines will be adding a row of first class to these planes (four seats). They will not be removing any coach seats to accommodate this. That means squeezing more seats into the plane. The space will come from smaller lavatories, and likely also an inch being shaved from existing first class and coach seats on these planes.
Putting In American’s Less Comfortable Domestic Product
Seven years ago American Airlines launched a new domestic product with less legroom; less padding in the seats; no seat back entertainment screens; and 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”) to fix mistakes.
However Airbus A319s never received the treatment. When American Airlines ordered the planes, before being taken over by US Airways, they were already in a dense configuration 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).
Now the more padded seats will be ripped out, and with them seat back entertainment. American is literally putting a worse product into these planes.
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 are going to be replaced on these routes with Airbus A321XLRs when those are delivered, and the 321Ts will be converted to American’s standard configuration. That doesn’t just mean ripping out first class and lie flat business class seats from these aircraft. It means less legroom in coach, and the elimination of seat back entertainment, too.
American’s basket of deplorable Airbus A320s 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.
The plan for these perhaps ought to be retirement. Instead they’re going to be retrofit with an additional row of first class seats, too.
Delta and JetBlue have seat back entertainment screens. United is adding them. All three plan to offer fast, free wifi while American’s inflight internet is the most expensive in the industry. They are charging more and giving less.