A number of complaints have been lodged with AA, as well as posted in this forum, about the changes made to the AA Business (“Domestic First”) A329, A321 and 737 aircraft cabin under Project Oasis.
Notably, installation of the Rockwell Collins MiQ seat with 1) less seat pitch, 2) very limited under seat stowage and 3) a rigid bar in the seat back center that can be bothersome.
AA retrofitted a Boeing 737-800 to what is being called “Project Kodiak” standards with the goal of proving the type and beginning retrofitting already retrofitted “Oasis” aircraft to remediate problems identified.
American Is Now Retrofitting 737s AGAIN To Fix Poorly Thought Out First Class Cabin, by Gary Leff in View From the Wing, January 9, 2020
In part: The original retrofit of Boeing 737-800s to match the new 737 MAX interior – more seats with less padding, less room between seats, bigger overhead bins and smaller lavatories – was called “Project Oasis.”...
American created ‘Project Kodiak’ to tweak first class: Fixing row 1’s legroom, fixing underseat storage, improving separation between first and coach, and adding tablet holders and USB power to first class...
That project is now underway with several planes in for a ‘Kodiak’ refit, both planes that had never gotten a refit before and refits of planes that had already received an ‘Oasis’ refit.
One surprise is that it appears there’s a plane with seat back video in for retrofit, ripping out TV screens. American had previously said that these planes would receive their retrofits last so that customers could keep screens as long as possible. That appears not to have been accurate.
Meanwhile they continue to retrofit planes with ‘Oasis’ first class that will then need to be retrofit again
Link to article
Much of the information seems to have originated with
JonNYC.
American Airlines Forced To Refit Some Of Its Boeing 737s Again by Sumit Rehal January 9, 2020, Simple Flying. In part:
Back in October, American Airlines resumed work on its Project Oasis, which is an initiative to retrofit its fleet of 304 Boeing 737-800s and most of its 219 Airbus A321-200s. However, the airline has already taken a second look at the work completed on some of its 737s and is having another go at the fit.
Link to article
Possible remediation:
- Restoring seat pitch to bulkhead seats
- Expanding under seat stowage space
- Remediating seat back reinforcement bar
- Adding tablet holder to seat back
- Adding USB 5 volt outlet
- Improved separation between cabins
JonNYC’s tweets reproduced from the View From the Wing article: