American Airlines, the last U.S. airline flying three-class planes between New York and California, is getting out of that business with a downgrade of its A321T planes, reconfiguring them with nearly double the number of seats.
In addition to removing the ten first-class seats from the 102-seat Airbus jets, the airline will also squeeze other seats a bit, remove seatback screens in coach and reduce galley space. There will be fewer 'extra legroom' seats, and even the regular coach seats will be a little tighter. In the end, the new layout will have 196 seats.
Ten years ago, when AA first introduced the A321T, it was betting that in a few markets, including New York to LA and San Francisco, there would be enough premium demand for the pricy first-class seats, a bet that worked reasonably well until the pandemic shifted travel patterns for business travel.
AA has 16 of the three-class planes; one is being converted now as a prototype for the others, although not all will be converted until the arrival of the not-yet-certified A321XLR, which will have coach plus lie-flat business class seats; the A321T business class has only recliners.
Overall, the changes at AA reflect an ongoing shift away from first-class not only at AA, but at many other airlines where business class cabins have been upgraded and new premium economy sections have been created to fill a gap just below them. American's 777-300ER planes, used in international service, will also lose first-class cabins over the next period.
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