American Airlines announced on Thursday that it had finished the retrofit of its entire Boeing 737-800 fleet, in line with the Boeing 737 MAX jets.
Last year, American’s Chief Financial Officer Derek Kerr said that the airline was expecting this retrofit to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2021. However, in January this year, Americans said it aimed to finish work on the 737s by April 2021.
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American Airlines announced the “Project Oasis” to retrofit its Boeing 737-800s and Airbus A321s. This project got a boost after these jets were parked on the ground due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline decided to speed up these jets as hundreds of these jets were parked, and it made sense for the airline to speed up the retrofit rather than disrupting the later schedules.
In the airline’s third-quarter earnings call last year, Kerr said that the retrofit of its Airbus A321s would be completed by the spring of 2022.
The 737-800s have been retrofitted with 16 recliner-style first-class seats and 30 main cabin extra seats in addition to 126 economy class seats in a 172-seat configuration. American Boeing 737 MAX aircraft also have the same configuration.
The Airbus A321s are being retrofitted to a 190-seat configuration with 20 recliner-style first-class seats, 29 main cabin extra seats, and 141 economy class seats.
Previously, the 737s were configured with 160 seats, whereas the A321 aircraft either had 181 or 187 seats.
