While the exact timeline remains to be seen, it’s pretty certain at this point that American Airlines will be making some changes to the layout of some of its Airbus A319s.
Continue reading: American A319s Getting More First Class Seats, Tighter Cabin
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American has indicated it is shopping for an eventual replacement for the A319 and A320 frames, as well as some of the oldest 737-800s in the fleet. The newer, LAA A319s aren't going anywhere.
The A319 is not economical given its small size; not having enough first class seats cuts into revenue.
The A319 is powered by old generation engines and even the A319 is not selling because of the A220-300 which one of AA's major competitors operates and is on the way to a fleet of 100 aircraft; their A223 fleet seats virtuAAlly the same number of seats but burns a whole lot less fuel.
Not mentioned, but I believe AA is adding the SpaceFlex lavs - 2 lavs on the back wall of the aircraft, splitting the current space.
AA has no choice but to either refurbish or write down the "young" A319s even if it retires the rest of them including the A320 fleet.
And AA's shopping exercise for a replacement narrowbody fleet got a little more difficult with the MAX 9 grounding and subsequent production cap on the MAX by the FAA. AA better hope they had a proposal from Airbus that they will still honor even if a contract was not signed.
Upgrades even with 12 First Class seats will be tough unless you pay for an upgrade.
The constant obsession with inseat entertainment is nauseating.....not everyone wants or needs it. If you as a customer need to have some type of device in your hands or infront of your face fly Delta or JetBlue, PERIOD. They upgrade the wifi and add streaming.....not fast enough for some of you. Some refuse to Pay for the wifi. All these GD critics out there......if you have All the Answers, Start your own GD Airline and let's see how you do. Soooooooooooooo tired of these arguments. Some of you miserable people are a TOTAL MFing PITA on a daily basis.
if you actually travel on a B6 or DL domestic flight w/ IFE, the usage is about 2/3 or more of passengers even if it is just the moving map. People do want it which is why UA figured out it needed to add it.
It is fine that AA and WN choose not to offer it on domestic aircraft but don't belittle people that do use it. Some of us are equally tired of the childish defenses of people that can't accept that domestic AVOD is just as valid of a strategy FOR AN AIRLINE as it is the norm for longhaul widebodies to have it.
The A319 was always a performance aircraft. US Airways used them for Transcons at a time where the A320 couldn't make it reliably and the A321s did not have the capabilities that they had now. US had 12 First class seats on the 319 for consistency with the 320s (makes loading meals easier in case of a sub). Counterbalancing the long legs for transcons, US also used these plans on the Shuttle, adding a significant number of flights before the E190 took its place.
AA pre-merger bought the 319s as apart of a large part for certain hot/high airports were the performance was needed. I suspect the remaining 32 will continue to serve this purpose, particularly out of MIA. 32 might be too many for those, and i could also see some of these return to "shuttle-lite" duty. At least on the short flights, the space-flex lavs won't get much use.
I do value a TV screen particularly on longer flights. So, as you suggest, I’m already choosing Delta over American where feasible and if the cost differential isn’t too much. I understand that not everyone values it, that why it’s nice to have a choice. If you want to read a book, you can just turn the TV off. Easy!
The A319 still has better performance for hot and high airports and long routes then the A220-300, especially in AAs config, the -115 which is the most powerful CFM engine rating. AA makes good use of the A319s capabilities at STT, TGU before it closed, etc.
Honestly I'm surprised it took AA this long to start retrofitting their LAA A319's (or at least make the announcement). Let's just hope that the Oasis-ization of their A319's takes as long as UA's Polaris/NEXT retrofits.
yes... but 130 seats is low for a longer flight but for some of the ski markets or northern S. or Central America, the 319 could be the right plane.
And the "real" performance aircraft is the 757 but AA got rid of theirs. And it is large enough that the economics work for relatively long flights such as NYC to northern S. America and high capacity on a domestic aircraft.
Speak for yourself. I like my backseat entertainment as it's more practical, especially on longer flights. No need to get angry about this.
You're in the minority. If you prefer to use your device, you have the option to not use the screen in front of you. Those of us that do want to use the screen, give us that option don't try to play it off like BYOD is a better solution when it's just AA trying to justify reducing costs and saving money on fuel. If seatback IFE wasnt a big deal, United wouldnt be investing so much money into bluetooth enabled 4K seatback screens. Meanwhile AA is still pretending to be a legacy airline while operating a low cost airline model.
It's a sad day, and makes AA closer to Spirit than Delta.
We always got these on the Dallas to Jackson Hole leg
While I will miss these, but since we moved from an AA hub to a Delta hub, we have been using DL more. Though AA is usually significantly cheaper, the experience is just not as premium, and we are ok with paying more for a better experience.
America keeps going downhill; as a million-mile flier with American, I have not flown them in over 15 years; bad planes, bad service, bad food, and the list goes on and on.
You sound completely unhinged and if you get this angry over something so trivial I don’t think you should be travelling at all. You’re clearly emotionally dysregulated and you may well present a safely issue for other travellers. Get a grip and get help.
The world's only PERFECT airline flies A319s. Perfect airlines don't use planes that aren't economical, do they?
Not a fan of Oasis but do like the addition of 4 seats in F. They use A319 on bulk of TPA-DCA flights, where I commute, and F is usually full before the upgrade window opens.