American Airlines Reveals Plans for Boeing 777 Upgrades and New Airbus A321XLR Routes

The onboard experience on select American Airlines jets is set to improve significantly.

In 2022, the Fort Worth-based airline unveiled its new Flagship Suites business-class product, alongside a revamped premium economy recliner and additional enhancements for some of its new and retrofitted aircraft.

While the airline has not officially confirmed when these new seats and planes will be in service, Brian Znotins, American's senior vice president of network and schedule planning, has provided updates that are likely to pique your interest.

The Airbus A321XLR will take the place of the A321T

American has pending orders for 50 Airbus A321XLR jets, which are designed for extra-long-range travel. These single-aisle Airbus aircraft are mainly intended to connect American's key Northeast markets with less trafficked secondary cities in Europe.

However, when the A321XLR deliveries begin, American won't immediately assign them to European routes. Instead, these planes will service the airline's premium transcontinental routes from Boston and New York City to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

This shift is due to American retiring its current premium transcontinental aircraft, the Airbus A321T, which features 10 Flagship First suites, 20 Flagship Business lie-flat seats, and 72 economy seats (with half offering extra legroom). The A321T will be transitioned to American's standard "Oasis" layout, making the A321XLR the airline's primary premium transcontinental aircraft.

"As the A321XLRs begin to arrive, they will primarily replace the A321Ts on transcontinental routes. Our main focus with these aircraft is the reconfiguration of the A321Ts and their maintenance. We likely won't see new A321XLRs used for long-haul flights until late 2025 or 2026," said Znotins.

The Airbus A321XLR will not include Flagship First. (In fact, American is entirely discontinuing this cabin.) Instead, these jets will feature 20 new Flagship Suites business-class seats arranged in a 1-1 layout, along with a 16-seat premium economy section.

American's Boeing 777-300ER retrofits are set to commence soon

American is also upgrading its fleet of 20 Boeing 777-300ERs. These aircraft will be removing their Flagship First cabins to make way for a brand-new Flagship Suites business-class product, which appears to be quite impressive based on the renderings.

Znotins mentioned that "the reconfigurations for the 777-300ER are underway this summer and will continue into next winter and summer as well."

Once the retrofitting is finished, these planes will have only three cabins arranged as follows:

• 70 Flagship Suites
• 44 premium economy recliners
• 216 economy seats

With this new layout, American is adding 18 business-class seats and 16 premium economy recliners to these aircraft while keeping the economy capacity intact. (The airline will eliminate the eight-seat first-class section.) This is a "'have your cake and eat it too' scenario," Znotins elaborated. "I can add all these fantastic seats without sacrificing anything. Economically, it will be superb."

Znotins was hesitant to predict when passengers might be able to board the newly retrofitted jets.

"As the program progresses, we will gain better insights into when these aircraft will be ready, and we’ll begin announcing their new configurations and routes closer to that time," he explained. "We prefer not to share details too early given the current uncertainties."

When discussing potential routes for these upgraded planes, Znotins highlighted London's Heathrow Airport (LHR).

"Heathrow represents the most premium-focused market internationally from the U.S. Thus, while our premium-heavy aircraft won't be limited to just Heathrow, it will certainly have a significant emphasis there," he noted.

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New 787-9P Dreamliners are set to arrive soon

American's wide-body fleet exclusively comprises Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft. While these planes vary in interior configurations, a new layout is set to launch in the coming months. The upcoming Boeing 787-9 deliveries will feature a 787-9P configuration.

The 'P' denotes premium, and these aircraft will include:

• 51 Flagship Suites
• 32 premium economy recliners
• 18 Main Cabin Extra seats
• 143 standard economy seats

Initially, the plan was to launch the 787-9P configuration on the airline's new longest route from Dallas-Fort Worth to Brisbane, Australia. However, that has changed due to delivery delays from Boeing. Znotins mentioned that the airline will be "taking a number of them next year" in reference to the 787-9P jets.

"The 787-9Ps will be part of the network next summer," he noted. This week, the airline unveiled its highly anticipated summer 2025 transatlantic schedule, which features five new long-haul routes. Although the 787-9P won't be utilized for these new routes, the airline plans to deploy existing aircraft that will become available once the 787-9P is introduced in other markets.

Znotins is uncertain about the exact arrival of the 787-9Ps, so he cannot yet link a specific configuration to a particular route.

"I can't specify a date, but we want to avoid downgrading aircraft and dealing with oversales upfront ... we will sacrifice some selling capacity to ensure we can meet our customers' needs," Znotins explained.

Reading between the lines, it appears that American is gearing up for a "soft launch" of the 787-9P configuration. This bodes well for travelers seeking upgrades, as this aircraft boasts significantly more premium seats than the current configurations.

Regardless, TPG will keep a close eye on the delivery and route schedule, providing updates as more information becomes available.