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One of the bigger pieces of airline news from last week was the announcement that American Airlines has ordered a host of new Boeing 787 aircraft and finally got around to cancelling the Airbus A350 order we all knew it had no intention of seeing through.
Specifically, American Airlines has ordered 22 Boeing 787-8 aircraft scheduled to start arriving in 2020 and 25 Boeing 787-9 aircraft whose deliveries will commence in 2023.
American Airlines 787-8 – Image Loaded Aaron
The 787-8s are seen as a replacement for the ageing Boeing 767 aircraft which first entered service when dinosaurs still roamed the planet while the longer 787-9 aircraft will replace the Airbus A330-300 aircraft that were once part of the US Airways fleet.
I’d like to be able to say that this is all great news and I’m sure that’s exactly how American Airlines would like this news to be viewed….but it isn’t.
The Economy Class cabins of the 767s may be antiquated (they don’t even have personal IFE screens) but from a passenger comfort point of view they’re actually not too bad.
Most of the 767 Main Cabin seats offer 32″ of seat pitch and almost all seats are ~ 18″ wide. The Dreamliners set to replace these aircraft offer an Economy Class cabin in which most seats only offer ~31″ of pitch and ~17″ of seat width…and that’s a significant downgrade.
It’s the same story with the A330s and the 787-9s. The Economy Class seats on the outgoing aircraft offer more leg room and seat width than the seats you’ll find on the Dreamliner so we may have a new aircraft smell when we board but most people certainly won’t be comfortable.
The news is better in the Business Class cabins….but not as good as you may think.
Both variants of the Dreamliner offer Business Class cabins with all-aisle-access seating….but then so do the Airbus A330s and the 767s. The Business Class seats in the 767 are not as good as those that you’ll find in the Dreamliners (767 reviewed here)…..
American Airlines 767 Business Class
American Airlines 787-9 Business Class
….but while I like the 787-9 Business Class cabin I find some of the seats in the 787-8 to be a bit too coffin-like for comfort (American Airlines 787-8 Business Class review).
Yes, they’re still better than what the 767 offers but they’re not as good as I’ve read some say they are.
There’s also the numbers game to take into consideration.
Currently this is the Business Class seat count on each of the aircraft I’ve been discussing:
- 787-9 Dreamliner – 30
- Airbus A330-300 – 28
- 787-8 Dreamliner – 28
- 767-300 – 28
On the face of things we’ll actually be slightly better off when the new aircraft arrive as we’ll be gaining 2 seats with the longer of the Dreamliners….but this may not be what we’ll end up with.
@JonNYC (a good authority on things relating to AA) has suggested that the Business Class cabin in the 787-8 may be soon offer fewer seats than it does now (I can’t find his tweet now but it was definitely there last week).
The suggestion is that the 787-8’s mini Business Class cabin, which sits just ahead of the current main cabin extra seats,…..
Screenshot from SeatGuru.com
…..will be removed and replaced with American’s new Premium Economy seating.
This will see the number of Business Class seats reduced by 8 (to just 20) and will make booking awards and clearing upgrades considerably harder than it right now….and it’s hard enough as it is!
Bottom Line
American Airlines may be introducing new aircraft from 2020 but new doesn’t always mean better.
The new American Airlines 737 MAX 8 aircraft are ones to avoid if at all possible and the Economy Class cabins in the new Dreamliners are no party either….so there isn’t all that much for passengers to cheer here. Remember that when American Airlines next tells us just how great it is that all these new aircraft are being introduced into the fleet.
