While we’ve had reason to believe this was coming, American Airlines has just announced plans to update the cabins of its regional aircraft, operated by American Eagle. While largely cosmetic, I’m looking forward to these changes.
In this post:
American Eagle regional jets receiving cabin overhaul
The cabins of American Eagle aircraft will be updated, to better reflect the cabins you’ll find on mainline aircraft (which… I’m not sure that’s the flex American thinks it is, but I digress). With this, we can expect modern new cabins with updated seat coverings, along with power ports at all seats.
Starting this fall, American will start to take delivery of new regional jets with the fresh interiors. Beyond that, we’re going to see all Bombardier CRJ-700s and CRJ-900s, as well as Embraer E170s and E175s, reconfigured with these new interiors over the coming years (though there’s no exact timeline beyond that).
In addition to new interiors, American has been rolling out high speed Wi-Fi on American Eagle planes since late 2023. As of now, the airline has added this service to around 300 regional aircraft, and installation is expected to be complete by early 2026. Keep in mind that American also plans to introduce free Wi-Fi for AAdvantage members as of January 2026.
American is also working with Embraer on designing larger overhead bins, creating more room for bags, and making the boarding process smoother. There’s no timeline for that yet, though, and we can simply expect this to be rolled out in the coming years.
Here’s how Heather Garboden, American’s Chief Customer Officer, describes these updates:
“Our customers value staying connected in the air, even on a relatively short flight. We’ve been working diligently to ensure our regional fleet offers the best and most reliable high-speed connectivity, especially as we look ahead to free Wi-Fi in 2026.”
These American Eagle Embraer jets will be a pleasure to fly!
In general, I’m a huge fan of the Embraer E170/175. The plane is such a joy to fly, given the 1-2 layout in first class, and the 2-2 layout in economy class.
American has the largest regional subsidiary of any of the “big three” US carriers, so the airline has a huge fleet of these Embraer planes. While I’ve very much enjoyed flying these planes, the catch is that most of these planes haven’t historically featured fast Wi-Fi or power ports. So if you add those factors, plus a fresh interiors, these might just be the most pleasant non-wide body American planes to fly.
The icing on the cake is that these planes have the highest ratio of first class to economy seats of any plane in the fleet, with 12 first class seats and 64 economy seats, meaning that 16% of seats are first class. That compares favorably to 737s, for example, which have 16 first class seats and 156 economy seats, meaning that 10% of seats are first class.
So the extent that complimentary elite upgrades are still a thing, these regional planes give you the best odds…
Bottom line
American Airlines will be updating the cabin interiors of its regional jets, operated by American Eagle. While the airline is already in the process of introducing high speed Wi-Fi (which should be available on all planes by early 2026), we’re now going to see the planes get new cabins and power ports at every seat.
I’m looking forward to these updates, though the only catch is that it’ll likely be several years before this project is complete.
What do you make of American investing in its regional jet fleet?
I agree. I enjoy the "1 side" of the 1-2 E170+ F. In my Y days, it always seemed such a pleasure to fly the E145 with the 1-2 Y throughout. The solo seat was tight, but you, a coach pax, got a window, aisle, and never had to sit next to anyone.
This is a bad week for Delta. United and American Eagle announced better WiFi than Delta. American Eagle will now have better seating than the Delta A220!
I think these seat colors look similar to an old pattern on Southwest.
I love the CCO’s comment about “relatively short flights.” Yes, the RJ fleet operates a lot of short hops, no question, but plenty of ~2.5-3 hour flights as well. LAX-OMA/DSM/IAH, ORD-BOI, DFW-YQC/STS come to mind.
Most of the flights you listed are about 3.5 hours tops, so "relatively short" can apply here according to Google.
But I didn't know they flew to Quaqtaq Airport all the way up in Quebec! But that's 5 hours...
Disappointing the seat backs won't have the device holders.
El Paso here I come
That brown color looks absolutely horrible. As for power on seats, I really hope they add USB-C which is now the standard in most electronics vs the old USB-A ports. Lastly, I hope the power outlets can actually hold power plugs as most airlines have loose ones that disconnect very often.
I'm thinking some laid off WN execs infiltrated the design team.
As someone who mostly flies on regional jets, AA is much more consistent on power ports throughout the plane compared to UA on RJs. As for this announcement, could have been a great time to announce upgraded meal options on regional! That is a major drop off from mainline and I just don’t understand it.
I’m on AA EMB 170/175s about 50x a year, last one was just 2 days ago. The wifi upgrade has been tough, many many flights where it’s been inoperable. But on the updated planes the wifi is much better now. If that’s a guide on this refresh, it will take 3 years to get this done.