American is introducing new business class suites with doors. These will come with new delivery Boeing 787-9s. They’re planning to retrofit Boeing 777-300ERs with these seats (while eliminating first class, and adding seats in total to the aircraft). The retrofit plan of these Boeing 777-300ERs is called Project Olympus.
Credit: American Airlines
These Boeing 777-300ERs are getting a lot more seats – and a lot more premium seats – 84 to 114 total premium seats, without losing any coach seats.
Current configuration:
- 8 first class
- 52 business class
24 premium economy
- 216 coach
New configuration:
- 70 business class
- 44 premium economy
- 216 coach
Credit: American Airlines
That’s an increase of 30 seats, all in business and premium economy which means seats that take up more room. And all they’re giving up is 8 first class seats to get that. In order to do this, it means that current seats have to be squeezed.
That happens by reducing the space dedicated to lavatories, to each business class seats, and to extra legroom coach seats. Here’s a bit on how Project Olympus, the retrofit of American Airlines Boeing 777-300ERs, gain extra seats:
hasn't been posted as of yet. confirmed that 77W will be double lav fwd 1L, closet flipped to opposite side, reducing galley, large purser closet at 1L and lav at 1R removed. MC mid-galley removed, two lavs shifted to behind 5L/R reducing galley for MC… best reference BA's 77W.
— 808scottie.bsky.social (@808scottie.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 11:35 PM
Aviation watchdog JonNYC has this illustration of changes to the LOPA:
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) November 27, 2024
The good news, of course, is that there’s only so much they can do to shrink the size of at least one of the lavatories on board since they’re required to have an ‘accessible’ lav on these planes. Here’s the one from American’s Boeing 787-9. Still, the number and spaciousness of lavatories on the aircraft actually has a lot to do with queues and even cleanliness over the course of a long flight.
American Airlines updated these Boeing 777-300ERs in 2017, adding premium economy and taking away their generous Main Cabin Extra which was 9-abreast rather than 10-abreast. That change added premium seats while taking away from coach. This change adds even more premium seats, while taking away from the space allotted to each premium seat, as well as to amenities on board the aircraft.
I’ve stopped flying on American Airlines so this doesn’t affect me.
There is more space being taken out of galleys and closets than from lavs. The implications of that should be carefully considered.
Should have called it Project Icarus, since this overly ambitious plan to increase premium seats will lead to less comfort and convenience for those who do fly in those cabins (tighter space, less lavatories).
No problem at all. Airline lavs are meant to be functional, not spacious. Also, fine shrinking pitch in the economy cabin. If they want more room buy a better class of ticket like I do.
Great for those who spend on the higher classes of service, terrible news for those who are limited to the economy cabin. Even their economy plus seats will be tight. So AA will treat their JFK-LHR and MIA-EZE fliers in back as if they’re on the DFW-LIT run. Miserable.
Hard pass from me.
I see how utterly disgusting the narrowbody coach lavs look after a three hour flight, particularly the floors. I can only imagine what they would look like towards the end of a 12 hour flight.
Well, looks like it could be a sensible business ( revenue) decision. However, customer reviews on service and comfory will decide whether that is true
There really needs to be a federal regulation on the minimum lavatory size. I’m a small guy and I can’t even comfortably use the lavatories on Delta’s 737-900s. The 747s that Delta had were great because there were plenty of lavatories and they were spacious. The 350s that replaced the 747 have significantly fewer lavatories.
Boeing’s 737 lavs are ridiculously small but there isn’t any single airline that has a market on them.
The A350 was not a direct replacement for the 747
DL has changed (and is in the process of changing) its Pacific network from Asian-hubbed operation to US hubs – of which there are far more US hubs than in any Asian country.
ICN will become a large JV hub and the A350-1000 will play a role in that – and be closer to the 744 in size than anything else but the A350 lavs are industry standard.
and the point here still is that lav sizes are not shrinking near as much in AA’s refurb as the elimination of closets and galley space.
Lavs only need to be as large as necessary to get the job done. Other than new Boeing 737 lavs
which results in taking an unwanted bath, every other commercial aircraft lav works.
Closets are not directly accessible to most customers but rather to FAs which sometimes use them to provide better service to premium customers – and sometimes not.
Galley size matters because it indicates the level of service a carrier can do. Since AA intended to use its 77Ws on ultra long haul flights, they might not legitimately need as much galley space as they had but they might also be able to cut galley space by using smaller trays – which could mean less food on them.
I fly because I have to, not because I want to…ever.
American Airlines needs to pay for a lot of things so their passengers have to pay the price.
You can look to the UAL B77W seatmap on their website. It isn’t much different. UAL retains the midcabin Y galley but AA retains more lavatories. Front galley/lav setup on UAL is looks like what AA is going to do. Also keep in mind AA has 20 more seats in Y vs the higher premium config in the new AA setup
An airline’s main job is to provide transportation, not to provide a lounge in every bathroom.