Originally Posted by
FWAAA
There will not be a first class cabin on the 787-9s. The announced configuration is 28 J seats, same as the 787-8s. Much smaller premium cabin than any of the competition, so AA has set its sights rather low.
The 789 has been created as the VFR beast, for lack of a better term. AA has historically had very "un"-dense cabins, that were premium heavy. It caused MAJOR problems for profitability in VFR/ethnic markets due to lack of premium demand. The 789 will be ideal for markets like PEK, AHN, India, etc. Will AA ever fly India again? Probably not, but it would be the perfect airplane for it. It'll burn like 20% less gas than the 772 it would replace and seat about 25% more than the old configuration.
What's interesting is that AA created essentially 3 categories of long-haul aircraft. The 77W will be the long-haul premium heavy product. The A359 and 772 will be the "middle of the road" premium product and the A333, A332, 789, 788 and 763 will be the "cattle car" product that will be very low premium numbers and pack em in the back.
From a fleet planning/network planning point of view, its actually the perfect situation. So AA will be able to go from 60 premium seats down to 20 in a long-haul market based on what the demand truly is. That is something the old AA/US could never do. For AA, the market had to either be premium heavy or "suffer" with losses due to the aircraft makeup.
So AA's aircraft will be:
77W - Medium Density, Premium product (310 seats; 60 premium)
333 - High density, low premium (291 seats; 28 premium)
772 - Ultra High Density, fairly heavy premium (289 seats; 45 premium)
789 - Ultra High Density, low premium (289 seats; 28 premium)
772 - Sorta High Density fairly heavy premium (260 seats, 45 premium )
332 - High Density, low premium (258 seats; 20 premium)
788 - Moderate density, low premium (226 seats; 28 premium)
763 - Low Density, moderate premium (209 seats; 28 premium)