In March 2024, American Airlines announced plans to retrofit its Airbus A319 & A320 aircraft, to add more first class seats. This announcement coincided with American ordering 260+ Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer jets.
There’s now an update, as the first retrofitted plane with new interiors is now in service. While I covered this last week, I’d like to provide an update, as we have our first pictures of the interiors, and they’re a bit swankier-looking than expected.
In this post:
American refreshing Airbus jets with more first class seats
American is refreshing the interiors of its entire Airbus A319 and A320 fleet over the next couple of years. With this project, we’re seeing the planes get power ports at every seat, larger overhead bins, and new seats with updated trim and finishes.
Perhaps most exciting of all is that each of these planes is getting an extra row of first class seats:
- Airbus A319s go from eight first class seats to 12 first class seats
- Airbus A320s go from 12 first class seats to 16 first class seats
American claims that this is in response to customers’ increasing demand for premium cabin seats. A 33-50% increase in first class seats on these aircraft is significant. Hopefully it leads to more AAdvantage upgrades, though in reality, a lot of unsold first class seats nowadays are upgraded with cash.
So, what’s the timeline with which this project is taking place? American is starting with A319s, and is then reconfiguring the A320s. Among the A319s, the legacy American ones are being reconfigured first, followed by the legacy US Airways ones (meanwhile all the A320s are legacy US Airways).
As JonNYC reported last week, the first A319 to be reconfigured has the registration code N9002U. The plane was in San Salvador (SAL) since September 2025, where the cabin retrofits took place, and then flew back to the United States on February 6, 2026, where it has been in service ever since.
We also now have our first pictures of the interiors of these planes, which you’ll find below. As you can see, the interiors match the new style colors you’ll find on Boeing 787-9s and Airbus A321XLRs, so the first class seats are similar to premium economy seats on those planes. I really like the cabin aesthetics.
In the interest of being thorough, let me clarify that American doesn’t have plans to increase first class capacity on its Boeing 737s (800s and MAX 8s) or Airbus A321s (ceos and neos) beyond the current 16 and 20 seats, respectively.
For context on how these planes fit into American’s fleet, the airline currently has 132 A319s and 48 A320s. Most of these were inherited by American during the merger with US Airways. The A319s are an average of over 21 years old, while the A320s are an average of over 24 years old. While they’re used throughout North America, you’ll find these jets the most in the Northeast.
Sadly enough, the 32 legacy American A319s are first to be reconfigured, and those are also American’s only “standard” narrow body jets with seat back TVs. So expect for those screens to be ripped out.
Expect Airbus A319 & A320 economy cabins to get tighter
On balance, updates to these aircraft are probably good news, in terms of more first class seats, consistent power ports, modernized cabins, and larger overhead bins. For the past several years, American’s focus has been on having a consistent Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 fleet, and now we’re seeing the airline focus on its A319s and A320s, though with updated design choices.
The thing to keep in mind is that as American reconfigures these aircraft, we’re not only seeing more first class seats installed, but we’re also seeing overall capacity increase, meaning that seating are becoming tighter.
For example, Airbus A319s previously had 128 seats, comprised of eight first class seats and 120 economy seats. Once reconfigured, capacity increase to 132 seats, identical to what you’ll find on Delta, where there are 12 first class seats and 120 economy seats.
I imagine it’ll be the same story on A320s, with American following Delta’s lead. American’s A320s have 150 seats, comprised of 12 first class seats and 138 economy seats. Capacity will probably increase to 157 seats, including 16 first class seats and 141 economy seats. Or maybe they’ll keep it just under 150, so they can avoid adding an extra flight attendant (since one is required for every 50 seats).
So, how is American able to increase capacity, while also increasing the number of first class seats? In addition to a slight reduction in pitch across the plane (including in first class), we’re also seeing major changes to the rear galley. The actual amount of galley space is being decreased considerably, so that the lavatories can go in the very back of the plane, in a space that used to just have galley space. That’s not going to be great for crews, since it also means that a jump seat is on the back of a lavatory door.
For a sense of what to expect, compare American’s old A319 seat map to Delta’s A319 seat map, and in particular, look in the rear galley space.
No wonder Delta does better with revenue — the airline is great at cramming seats into (largely very old) planes, but mood lighting and seat back entertainment make people forget about that.
Bottom line
American is starting the process of retrofitting its Airbus A319 and A320 fleet. The biggest “headline” announcement is that American is adding a row of first class seats, meaning the planes will have 12 and 16 first class seats, respectively.
On top of that, these planes are getting full cabin overhauls, including larger overhead bins, power at every seat, a new design aesthetic, and a tighter cabin. It’s not just that pitch is being reduced, but the rear galley becomes much tighter, so that lavatories can be squeezed into the very back of the plane.
With this, American is able to increase the overall capacity of the cabin while also adding a row of first class seats. These changes are a mixed bag. First class passengers or those looking to upgrade will be happy, while economy passengers and crews will likely be less happy.
I am sad that American is ripping out TVs from the 32 A319s that have them installed. For American’s domestic fleet, they’re basically the last reminder of American’s previous brief attempt to become more premium, around a decade ago.
What do you make of American’s Airbus cabin changes?
Had this on JFK-EGE and the FC seat was noticeably tighter in pitch. Good news is USB-C in the seat back and the power plug in the arm rest is easy to plug into. Bad news is the WiFi was not working as there was an issue post reconfiguration.
Was on a refreshed 319 today. The gate agents and computer were confused by the 12 first seats — vs the 8 apparently still shown in the computer. Took a short delay while they sorted it. Lol.
@Ben - Sorry this is unrelated, but it seems Zipair dropped prices for it's limited Tokyo to Orlando frequencies. I'm seeing the flights on Google Flights for $334 one-way in both directions (way less than the thousands they were originally charging). Just thought you (or anyone else) might be curious :)
More F is welcome, but really should have just removed a row, converted one to MCE, and not done the lav seats for the FAs IMO. How many more years do these even have? 5?
“More F is welcome”. One 1990Bots ‘F’ is only PE to the rest of the world. AA, etc, need to wake up and smell the coffee. Changing the name of a seat to impress the local yokels might work domestically, however, the rest of the free thinking world is not so easily fooled.
How's Delta LOPA worse than AA?
Besides having the very visible and very important AVOD, economy is pitched at 31" vs 30" at AA (where every inch counts, whether it's used for better padding or more legroom) and Domestic "First" has a 7" recline to AA's 5" (although it's 1" less pitch).
AA is really screwing it up in visible ways (actually, in a sea of boring grey without a screen in sight and uncomfortable...
How's Delta LOPA worse than AA?
Besides having the very visible and very important AVOD, economy is pitched at 31" vs 30" at AA (where every inch counts, whether it's used for better padding or more legroom) and Domestic "First" has a 7" recline to AA's 5" (although it's 1" less pitch).
AA is really screwing it up in visible ways (actually, in a sea of boring grey without a screen in sight and uncomfortable seating that wants you to turn down the next work assignment requiring travel).
” economy is pitched at 31" vs 30" at AA”
Except delta is 30” across the board per their own website. 31” is a lie from ed bastian not even supported by his own website stats
And delta first is either worse legroom across the board vs aa in most narrow bodies or the same as aa oasis
American just can't help themselves: They have to make things worse in some ways, a proud legacy they're living up to fully in this case.
Those A320’s are ancient- most of them are former America West planes delivered in the 90’s. How much more can you squeeze out of those? Reconfigure the 787-8 & 9 instead.
Jeez dude. Just like I said before. No matter what AA does, you put your negative spin on it. I'm beginning to think United is paying you for these backhanded posts.
Or perhaps AA is continually finding new ways to suck.
The brown/navy color palette is heinous, it's going to look dated momentarily just like every other color palette American has chosen over the past decade or so.
American doesn’t want to be a premium airline and I think comparing them to one is not relevant — they aren’t — they don’t want to be — just need to accept that or fly someone else. My big gripe with AA is that they want to price like other premium airlines yet they don’t want to be premium. They need to discount their product to address their shortcomings which they are good with. I...
American doesn’t want to be a premium airline and I think comparing them to one is not relevant — they aren’t — they don’t want to be — just need to accept that or fly someone else. My big gripe with AA is that they want to price like other premium airlines yet they don’t want to be premium. They need to discount their product to address their shortcomings which they are good with. I think travelers will be fine so long as they aren’t paying similar prices. AA needs to recognize choosing to be less than is fine but price accordingly.
One caveat is that the new first seats they chose look like the old ones with a modified headrest and a different color. The armrests/the part between the seats looks more similar to the current seats than what’s on the 78P and the XLR
Come on Ben, Get a grip. The new FC seats are awesome compared to what you expected. The lavs moving to the back so the Y cabin could remain the same number is not a new thing. There are 24 MCE which is a pretty good ratio of seats (120 in Y) on a smaller plane. There’s your premium revenue.
Exact layout as DL 319s except DL reversed the lav/galley layout. And this bit about “ripping” out the screens, how dramatic.
From a completely selfish point of view, I liked the 319s with 8 F seats. I normally sit in 2C. I avoid bulkhead as I like the option to put a bag in front of me. I like less F pax. I like that there is a divider behind row 2 which means any recline I use does not "invade" the space of the first row of Y. Mind you, I paid for F and I will recline even if it "invades" the space of those in Y.
I agree. I flew an American 319 over the weekend into DCA, and I’m also a 2C fan. And I agree with you about the divider between the two sections.