They are. I rode a few of them before AA withdrew all mainline metal from HSV.

When the A319s first joined the AA lineup, they used them in HSV to replace S80s. I looked at the specs. The A319s had fewer seats than the S80s, with RJ seat pitch instead of S80 seat pitch, and the S80 hops routinely flew 100% seats full.

I observed to one of the old guard GAs here that the choice of the A319 said very interesting things about AA's market forecast: they expected their passenger base to decline, not increase or even stay the same.

How much of it was that they wanted to move people over to pmUS flights and metal, I don't know.

It was clear to me at the time (pre-merger) that the Airbus buy meant that the merger was already a done deal, no matter what anyone said. AA at that time owned ZERO Airbus metal and had ZERO Airbus maintenance capability. The Airbus purchase price had to include buying the maintenance facilities, spare parts, and training the people - or they had to be planning on shipping the Airbus metal to US Airways facilities (which would likely have to be expanded).