American Airlines will be modifying their Airbus A319s to have an additional row of first class, going from two rows to three (8 seats up to 12). They won’t be taking out coach seats – they’ll net be adding seats to the planes and reducing legroom. American has been talking about adding first class seats to these planes for more than four years.
The A319s that had been ordered by American Airlines prior to being taken over by US Airways management had seat back entertainment screens. These new, densified aircraft will have their seat back screens removed.
Currently these 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 just that upgrades are tough on these planes – buying first class can be tough on many routes.
The prototype aircraft was done, and several of the 32 planes set for retrofit are in process of being modified. It’s this first class cabin that’s going away:
They’ll be replaced with these:
And it’s this that’s changing in back:
To make more room for the additional seats, two lavatories are being moved to where galley space used to be at the back of the aircraft. They’re even putting a flight attendant jumpseat on one of the lavatory doors to make room (breaking a promise made by ex-CEO Doug Parker).
As part of reconfiguring galleys, how they manage cart storage is changing. In an update for flight attendants, American shares that during the transition where only some of these planes will have 8 first class seats and others will have 12 they will be overprovisioning passenger meals on flights scheduled to have an 8-seat first class cabin, in case of an aircraft swap. That way last minute upgrades will have meals, if a flight suddenly finds itself with four extra seats.
That’s much better for passengers than leaving those four seats empty – imagine boarding and seeing four empty first class seats while Executive Platinum members, ConciergeKey customers, and deadheading pilots (!) are stuck in back.
This also means that there should be a good shot at first choice of meals on flights with eight seat first class Airbus A319 cabins, even if you don’t pre-order.
Really milking those 319s to the bitter end, eh?
It’s unclear if the reduced legroom is in First or in Economy. Is the legroom in the updated First Class cabin identical to the previous one? That is the major reason I fly First and so if these have even 1/2″ of less leg room, I’ll avoid A319s on AA.
@Mike Kelly the article says the reduced legroom is from economy.
The A319s are the worst aircraft in the AA fleet. In my opinion, these changes are a positive move even though leg room will be slightly impacted.
Additionally, I’m impressed that AA will be “over provisioning” these aircraft with 4 extra meals. I think this kind of move would have been unthinkable by AA even one year ago. This may be the single most significant sign that AA has truly regained a focus on the customer.
Why would I care about those in coach. If they want a better seat or more legroom buy First like I do.
They’re also removing a row of main cabin extra.
@Will — Once @Peter hears about this, he’ll be crushed. There should be more MCE, not less!
@1990 — I was JUST about to say this. Bah! Shoutout to @Peter, I’m fully on the more MCE train as well.
@L737 — Choo-choo! (Now, if only that C1 Landing at LGA would finally open…)