AA Adding Seats to several Fleet Types

[Hope777]

The number on the MD-80s is rising to 140 from 135, as the airline continues plans to retire those planes from its fleet. Work to boost seating on 737-800s to 160 or 164 from 150 and on the 777-200s to 260 from 247 will begin later this year. If American decides to increase 777-200 seating to 289, the work won’t be finished until 2015, Kirby said.
 
Is this something New?  Or has this been in the works pre-merger?

 

[Jacobin777]

Yikes!
 
I wouldn't be surprised to see a few less J seats on the B77E as well as a few Main Cabin Extra seats removed on the B738's. Does changing/adjusting the galley/restroom also make a difference?

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

 
Is this something New?  Or has this been in the works pre-merger?

 
Not very new, all the MD-80s have already been reconfigured for a while now. 772 has been unofficially going to 2-class for a while also. The new 738 config just became official, although you knew it was coming with all the flight attendant hiring announced this year. It will be good to have an extra crew member on that plane, especially to help with FC during dinner service on ORD-LGA, say. And Parker has said he was never a fan of blocking out seats on that plane to keep it under 150, which is what had been happening. Of course I don't know where we are going to put the extra carry on bags, however

 

[FWAAA]

The number on the MD-80s is rising to 140 from 135, as the airline continues plans to retire those planes from its fleet. Work to boost seating on 737-800s to 160 or 164 from 150 and on the 777-200s to 260 from 247 will begin later this year. If American decides to increase 777-200 seating to 289, the work won’t be finished until 2015, Kirby said.
 
Is this something New?  Or has this been in the works pre-merger?

It's old news, but it's the first time that Parker has been able to talk about it as the new CEO.   As usual, the media picks up on it and repeats it in hundreds of stories as if it's news.   The media apparently can't be expected to help fill in those who weren't following along last summer.    In June, Parker and Kirby held a town hall meeting at DFW and Laurie Curtis said that there was discussion about the need to add seats to the single-aisle planes:
 
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/06/american-airlines-to-add-seats-to-md-80-boeing-737-fleets.html/
 
It's clear that Parker and Kirby were behind the decision to add seats - nobody expected the DOJ lawsuit and in June, they were expecting to close the merger in August.   

 

[1AA]

Great news for non revving!!!

 

[jimntx]

One of the ways they keep Tulsa busy is to keep coming up with seating schemes that reduce the amount of seats and increase the space for certain seats which then they are always surprised to find out that customers are not willing to pay for that extra space.  More Room Throughout Coach, Main Cabin Extra...I'm sure there have been other schemes over the years.  Just wait a couple of years and another one will emerge.  When they are trying to address the overcrowding in coach issues/complaints of the frequent flyers, they always seem to forget that those same frequent flyers were not willing to pay for the extra space.  They "deserve it" because they are frequent flyers.
 
As Ad Astra said, it will be nice to have a 4th flight attendant on the 737 since that F/C galley is such a working disaster.  However, I think that it's probably going to be the first airplane that they take the new seats away when they decide that the extra seats do not generate enough revenue to pay for the 4th flight attendant.  We've already been through this scenario once before.  Remember when they tried to just block off some seats and drop to 3 f/as?  FAA said, " No, no.  The FAR states that there must be one f/a for each 50 seats or portion thereof.  It doesn't matter whether you have them blocked or not."  Of course, that time around, they had configured the 737 with something like 153 or 154 seats.  Those few extra require another f/a.
 
Oh, and the correct phrasing should be "AA is going back to 140 seats on the MD-80" instead of "the number of seats is rising to 140."  It was less than 2 years ago (IIRC) that they  took out one row of seats to create MCE.
 
Cynical?  Moi?  How could you say such a thing? 

 

[WorldTraveler]

AA's config on those aircraft types is closer to or in line with what other carriers have on the same aircraft types.

Adding seats to aircraft is a very low risk and low cost way to add capacity which helps keep the CASM from growing which it will do as labor costs increase as a result of the merger agreements.

several other US airlines have aircraft with 160 seats requiring them to put 4 FAs on them. As noted, 3 or 4 more seats isn't enough to justify it. If the flight operates at 85% LFs (common for US airlines now), then that is 7 or 8 more revenue passenger carrying capacity on multiple flights per day per aircraft. With the size of AA's 738 fleet, extra revenue can add up fast.

 

[nycbusdriver]

The number on the MD-80s is rising to 140 from 135, as the airline continues plans to retire those planes from its fleet. Work to boost seating on 737-800s to 160 or 164 from 150 and on the 777-200s to 260 from 247 will begin later this year. If American decides to increase 777-200 seating to 289, the work won’t be finished until 2015, Kirby said.
 
Is this something New?  Or has this been in the works pre-merger?

 
Welcome to Ma and Pa Kettle Airlines, founded in the desert sands of Tempe, AZ.

 

[737823]

Welcome to Ma and Pa Kettle Airlines, founded in the desert sands of Tempe, AZ.

Sadly you are correct. Honestly if DP and his minions try to pull off the same nonsense I'll going all in at DL. Already Platinum Medallion, and DL has flights to most of the markets I travel to. Very loyal to AA but if the AA I once knew will be gone I don't be staying around for America West dba American Airlines.

Josh

 

[737823]

AA's config on those aircraft types is closer to or in line with what other carriers have on the same aircraft types.

Adding seats to aircraft is a very low risk and low cost way to add capacity which helps keep the CASM from growing which it will do as labor costs increase as a result of the merger agreements.

several other US airlines have aircraft with 160 seats requiring them to put 4 FAs on them. As noted, 3 or 4 more seats isn't enough to justify it. If the flight operates at 85% LFs (common for US airlines now), then that is 7 or 8 more revenue passenger carrying capacity on multiple flights per day per aircraft. With the size of AA's 738 fleet, extra revenue can add up fast.

Pretty sure the AA 738s have had more reconfigurations since their introduction than anyother fleet type.

I recall a time pre-9/11 they had 20F seats AND More Room Throughout Coach.

Then they transitioned to 16F/132Y with 3 F/As with the removal of MRTC.

By April 2009 when the first new delivery since Nov 2001 came on the property, new deliveries were configured 16F/144Y, at the time AA stated the incremental revenue more than paid for the fourth F/A. Reconfiguration of the 77 "original" 738 Cabin Improvement Project was underway to match the new deliveries with new slimline seats, lavs, and drop down LCD monitors.

Sometime in 2012 Main Cabin Extra came around and they went down to 16F/134Y by removing one row of seats and blocking four middles in row 16/17.

The seats in row 16/17 are highly desirable and IMO are more desirable than exit row or seats 8CD in Y.

Josh

 

[nycbusdriver]

Sadly you are correct. Honestly if DP and his minions try to pull off the same nonsense I'll going all in at DL. Already Platinum Medallion, and DL has flights to most of the markets I travel to. Very loyal to AA but if the AA I once knew will be gone I don't be staying around for America West dba American Airlines.

Josh

 
Talk to Art from ISP (don't have the exact login name) on the forum about how responsive Parker and the Tempe Brain Trust are to the frequent flyers.  They drove him away from US Airways.

 

[737823]

Talk to Art from ISP (don't have the exact login name) on the forum about how responsive Parker and the Tempe Brain Trust are to the frequent flyers.  They drove him away from US Airways.

Well at the very least I hope the merger opens new opportunities and flying for you at the NY area airports. Ill have to wait and see but if AA is going to be like US or even what UAL has stooped down to these days DL will be my carrier if choice. Parker will hopefully understand that the clientele in AA markets will defect if he tries to pull this BS.

Josh

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

Well at the very least I hope the merger opens new opportunities and flying for you at the NY area airports. Ill have to wait and see but if AA is going to be like US or even what UAL has stooped down to these days DL will be my carrier if choice. Parker will hopefully understand that the clientele in AA markets will defect if he tries to pull this BS.

Josh

 
Do you live in the NYC area?

 

[737823]

Do you live in the NYC area?

Boston & Miami

Josh

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

Sadly you are correct. Honestly if DP and his minions try to pull off the same nonsense I'll going all in at DL. Already Platinum Medallion, and DL has flights to most of the markets I travel to. Very loyal to AA but if the AA I once knew will be gone I don't be staying around for America West dba American Airlines.
 

I also have the same concern as you.  Definitely will give the new company a chance.  But if AAG is brought to HP standards as US was, then I'll be patronizing their competition.