American Airlines Officials Hope Removing Seats Will Help to Boost Revenue
Jeff Edwards March 01, 2018
The world’s largest airline is busy retrofitting planes with fewer economy class seats in a bid to entice more passengers to upgrade to the premium economy class cabin.
In the airline industry, less can often be more. Legacy carriers in North America decided long ago that less legroom for passengers could mean more seats on the plane and therefore more revenue on each flight. American Airlines, however, appears to be bucking this trend when it comes to retrofitting and updating its fleet of 777-200 aircraft.
The carrier is removing 40 economy class seats to make room for 24 new premium economy seats. American’s cabin retooling won’t offer much comfort to economy class passengers, but flyers willing to pay a premium will have more options for purchasing a little extra elbowroom.
Since AA introduced Premium Economy Seating in 2016, the roomier option has proven exceptionally popular among customers and remarkably lucrative for the airline. The carrier has steadily increased the number of Premium Economy seats in the months since the initial launch that made the airline the first in the United States to offer premium economy seats on domestic flights. The company expects its entire fleet of 67 Boeing 777 aircraft to be completely retrofitted by the end of the year.
“There are certain products that some of our customers are willing to pay for and certain that they aren’t,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker explained to NBC News.
The airline certainly believes extra legroom, wider seats, dedicated overhead bin space and free drinks that accompany Premium Economy fares are among the products passengers are eager to spend money on, but this isn’t the only way that American expects that retooling its 777 cabins will help the bottom line. According to the Dallas Business Journal, standardizing the entire fleet will eventually result in cost savings when it comes to maintenance, scheduling equipment, cleaning and training.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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...I'll stick with Delta as they offer it on domestic services (save for RJs)
deja' MRTC (sorta)
In this case, on the 77X and 78X metal, they mean PE, not MCE.
I think AA or some third party sellers may be confusing Premium Economy with an extra legroom product on some flights. That said, this is what a deregulated market looks like. There are 5' thin people who are happy for a 17" wide seat with a pitch of 30" at a very good price. There are big people or orthopedically beat up people who will pay more for a wider seat with more legroom.
I’m confused by this article. It says PE on domestic routes, but mentions only the B772 changes. B772 is used int’l and very limited on domestic, primarily repositioning. Or so it seems. So where is the PE inventory on their domestic fleet? It’s certainly not on their mainline B738 fleet. Is there a secret A32x fleet somewhere?