American Airlines Is Replacing Its Nashville Lounge, Almost Tripling In Size With Outdoor Terraces

American Airlines will replace its current 7,000 square foot Nashville Admirals Club with a new 17,400 square foot lounge. The airline is touting that this will be the airport’s largest lounge and it will “feature sweeping views of the airfield and a design inspired by Nashville’s vibrant culture and the natural landscapes of Tennessee.”

The new Admirals Club will have outdoor terraces as well as an interior balcony overlooking the airport concourse. Construction should begin next year, and the current lounge will remain open until the new one is ready.

Current Nashville Admirals Club

It’s exciting both for the larger space, and because it’ll mean a lounge in the airline’s new aesthetic which is a tremendous upgrade. Senior Vice President of Customer Experience Design & Strategy Rhonda Crawford shares,

The new Admirals Club lounge at BNA reflects American’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the travel experience. This lounge is designed to give customers the spirit of Nashville while enjoying the comfort, amenities and service they expect from American.

This Adds To Robust Lounge Plans For American

American Airlines is planning new lounges (including new business class Flagship lounges) in Charlotte and Miami. Charlotte gets its first business class lounge, while Miami gets a new one, allowing the D30 Admirals Club to expand into the old space.

Washington National E Concourse Club

They’re refreshing the Chicago O’Hare Concourse L lounge and the Washington National airport D concourse lounge, and building a new lounge in Austin to replace the current one. Plus, the new terminal F at Dallas – Fort Worth will have a lounge complex.

Rendering of New Austin Club

That’s a much more robust pipeline of lounges than we’ve seen from American in a very long time, and American’s lounges that have been debuted over the past five years have been significantly nicer than the ‘modern hospital’ aesthetic they were using since 2017.

American Airlines Philadephia A West Admirals Club

Significant Lounge Plans At Nashville Airport

Last month’s airport board packet reports, “The Future Admirals Club Reimbursable Agreement for American Airlines will take a 7K SF club to almost 30K SF in new Concourse A.”

However, the space was previously discussed as 15,000 – 20,000 feet, which matches American’s announcement. The finance committee packet last March shared,

At American Airlines the team laid out the plans the Board has approved and they endorsed MNAA’s plan they plan to take 10 of those 16 gates so we have tenants for those already and United wants the others.

Some of them are going to be Common Use Gates. We are still in negotiations with American Airlines, but the big news for MNAA is that their current lounge is 7,000 SF and we will have a new lounge on top of Concourse A food court which is 15,000 SF but could be 20,000 SF and they may want it all.

But since months before that, discussions were around 30,000 square feet, so perhaps the amount of space American has been planning for has been in flux – though it would be shocking for them to take 30,000 square feet for a lounge at a non-hub airport, even an important one.

This was in the airport’s Operations Packet:

Delta had a small lounge on Concourse D, and they expanded it from 3K square feet to 15K square feet. American has a 7K square feet lounge on Concourse C, and they intend to take over all 30K square feet, which to us is a good signal that they plan to have long-term success here at BNA.

Commissioner Farner asked if the space on T gates will be a non-affiliated airline. President
Kreulen replied the T gates will be international gates, we can move any airline in and out of those
gates. Commissioner Farner asked if there is a lounge there.

President Kreulen stated the south mezzanine looks like one of our carriers will take it over and the north mezzanine the real estate team will put out a Request for Proposal (“RFP”) and test the market to see if one of the credit card lounges wants to come in here.

The other interesting item was plans for a North Mezzanine bank lounge. I haven’t seen a Request for Proposal come through yet. But “credit card lounges” means an expectation of American Express, Chase, or Capital One – though one imagines that third party lounge operators like Plaza Premium, Primeclass, The Club, Aspire or Escape might still bid.

Southwest is planning a Nashville lounge, which has been separately described as South Mezzanine and Central Mezzanine so I assume this is the “one of our carriers” that they expected to “take it over.”