American Airlines and JetBlue Airways have just announced a slew of new routes as part of their new northeast strategic alliance. As I discuss these new routes in a separate post, I want to dedicate a message to what the most interesting announcement is.
American will fly A321Ts between JFK and SNA
From June 2, 2021, American Airlines will start daily direct flights between New York (JFK) and Orange County (SNA). We do not yet know the exact schedules or frequencies. I take one daily flight, but we will find out more in the coming days as these flights are offered for sale.
The most surprising part of this new route is the plane that America will use – American plans to fly an A321T between New York and Orange County. For those of you who do not know this chassis of A321s, these are the planes that have historically been operated exclusively from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
These aircraft are unique in that they have only 102 seats and contain four seating options:
- There are 10 premium, completely flat inverted fishbone seats with direct access to the hallway, in a 1-1 setup
- There are 20 flat seats in a business class, in a 2-2 setup
- There are 72 economical seats, of which 36 seats are extra main cabin, with extra legroom
American Airlines’ A321T first class
Seeing the US Schedule A321Ts in this market is surprising and not surprising:
- On the one hand, it has historically been reserved for the trans – markets which are known to have high premium demand, especially among business travelers and the entertainment crowd.
- Although Orange County is fairly affluent, it does not have the demand for entertainment or business from the other markets; I would have expected to see an A321T between New York and Burbank before something like this
American Airlines’ A321T business class
Can we see more A321T routes from American?
American has a significant surplus of A321Ts, and it seems that this will be the case:
- This is especially true during the pandemic, given the total lack of demand between New York and California.
- In general, there were rumors that the American A321Ts reconfigured in a more standard configuration, although there was nothing concrete
With the new US and JetBlue Northeast partnership, it appears that we can expect a decrease in US service between New York and Los Angeles:
- American and JetBlue will jointly operate 14 daily flights between the New York area (JFK & EWR) and Los Angeles (LAX); that flying will be fairly evenly distributed between the two airlines
- Previously, American managed up to a dozen flights a day in the market using its own A321Ts
American & JetBlue will fly between JFK and LAX
It goes without saying that American will have more A321Ts in the future than he needs, assuming that American and JetBlue actually intend to reduce transcon service to the extent revealed.
Only time will tell whether American prefers to launch more A321T routes, and whether some of these aircraft will simply be repaired.
Bottom line
American Airlines will launch daily A321T flights between New York and Orange County from the summer of 2021. This will only be the third route to have this aircraft scheduled regularly.
This announcement certainly caught me off guard – although Orange County is a premium leisure market, it still looks surprising.
We’ll have to see what the future holds for the US A321Ts – will the airline reconfigure A321Ts, fly these aircraft into more markets, or eventually increase the service from JFK to LAX and SFO.
Are you surprised to see US A321Ts flying between JFK and SNA?