American A319 & A320 Retrofits: More First Class & Modern Design, But Tighter Cabins

In March 2024, American Airlines announced plans to retrofit its entire fleet of Airbus A319 & A320 aircraft. The first of those A319s entered service earlier this year, and now the first of the A320s with the new interiors is flying passengers.

The good news is that these planes feature more first class seats, and more modern cabins with larger overhead bins. The bad news is that the cabins are tighter than in the past, since airlines are all about maximizing their aircraft layouts.

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. In 2027, these planes will also get Starlink Wi-Fi, but that still requires some patience, and isn’t related to this retrofit project.

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.

American kicked off this project earlier this year with A319s (as was first reported by JonNYC), as the first of those planes entered service in February 2026. Now as of June 2026, we’ve seen the first A320 with new cabins enter service. 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 you can see based on the above pictures, 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. Those are also American’s only “standard” narrow body jets with seat back TVs, and those screens are being 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 seats are becoming tighter.

For example, Airbus A319s previously had 128 seats, comprised of eight first class seats and 120 economy seats. Once reconfigured, capacity increases to 132 seats, identical to what you’ll find on Delta, where there are 12 first class seats and 120 economy seats.

On the A320s, American isn’t going quite as high capacity as Delta. A320s previously had 150 seats, comprised of 12 first class seats and 138 economy seats. With the retrofits, capacity is remaining unchanged, with 16 first class seats and 134 economy seats. For context, Delta’s A320s have 157 seats, but I imagine American’s decision to keep the capacity at 150 seats was intentional, to avoid having an extra flight attendant (since one is required for every 50 seats). As a matter of fact, best I can tell, American is even doing a bit of seat blocking in economy, to keep that number at 150.

So, how is American able to maintain or even 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 how cabins are changing, compare American’s old A319 seat map to American’s new A319 seat map, and in particular, look in the rear galley space.

Bottom line

American is well into its project to retrofit the 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 A319 cabin (and maintain the capacity of the A320 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?