There are a number of flights on the schedule that only the 737-700 can do. The sub-fleet is small, only 40 airplanes.

and its not just actual FED employees, its contractors as well, which Scott mentioned in the conference this week, which brings the overall "gov't" related flying to I think 4-5%.

As others have said, I think is just accelerating the 20 A320s that were scheduled to be retired this year, plus maybe one additional frame. I am aware of the one frame retired in January but Kirby mentioned 21 frames so may be another A320. If you look at which A320s have received NEXT, almost all of them are 2001 builds or later. Gives you an idea of where the pre-2000 builds are headed, mostly to be retired and will not receive NEXT. The A320 is the ugly stepchild in the current fleet. Small F Class, the FAs didn't want another row of F because it meant 1 FA serving 16 upfront, and seats 150, the maximum allowed for three FAs. Compare it to the 738 and 737 MAX 8s that have four FAs, with two upfront. And I haven't even gotten to fuel burn which the 738 does better than the A320. The one fleet that remains a mystery is the 73G fleet. Just 40 of them and they are heavily used for short runway operations. Wonder if UA can just park those and use the 738 SFP as a substitute, knowing that there will be seats needed to be blocked for some airports or UA can take delivery of the A321neos with one ACT tank. That would make SNA-EWR on a non-73G a reality.

There is a discussion on the AA Forum about this: Scott Kirby doesn’t think American can be a “premium” airline and I wonder if it is related.

Absolutely... I also did not find Robert Isom's response, when prompted, to be particularly insipring.

Kirby is clearly next level as a CEO. Definitely on the right path with the great app, IFE and hard product investments.

Which is also why he can also initiate Kirby Kwality to onboard catering and we have to just suck it up.

Nor relevant, even.

Q1 Plan: Q2 updated plan: Putting these side by side, err top to bottom.
Faster deliveries in Q2 and Q3 apparently of Maxes, 1 more in total to offset 1 fewer 787. Slight delay in A321s this quarter.

Correct, Above I was focusing on the speculation for more / faster AirBus retirements discussed in this thread.

It does appear the pull-up in MAX deliverers into Q2/Q3 but exiting Q4 with the same MAX numbers (+1) and 1 less 787

No shakeup with the retirements other than the planned A320s being parked, which good riddance for multiple reasons.

entering q1 with one less 787 too. Assume Boeing production issues?

Interesting. Always find them less cramped and noisy than pre-MAX 737s and they have full size overhead bins upfront.