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American Airlines and JetBlue Airways have just announced a series of new routes as part of their new Northeast Strategic Alliance. While I’ll cover these new routes in a separate article, I wanted to devote an article to what I find to be the most interesting announcement.
The American will fly A321Ts between JFK and SNA
From June 2, 2021, American Airlines will launch daily non-stop flights between New York (JFK) and Orange County (SNA). We don’t know the exact times or frequencies yet – I’m assuming a daily flight, but we’ll know more in the coming days as these flights go on sale.
The most surprising part of this new route is the plane that Americans will use – American plans to fly A321T between New York and Orange County. For those of you unfamiliar with this sub-fleet of A321, these are the planes that have always been operated exclusively from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
These planes are unique in that they only have 102 seats and include four seating options:
- There are 10 first-class fully flat inverted chevron seats with direct aisle access, in a 1-1 configuration
- There are 20 fully flat seats in business class, in a 2-2 configuration
- There are 72 economy seats, 36 of which are in the additional main cabin, with more legroom
American Airlines First Class A321T
Seeing American A321Ts in this market is both surprising and unsurprising:
- On the one hand, this has historically been reserved for the transcon markets which are known to have a ton of premium demand, especially among business and entertainment travelers.
- Although Orange County is quite wealthy, it does not have quite the entertainment or business demand of other markets; I would have expected to see an A321T between NYC and Burbank before something like this
American Airlines Business Class A321T
Could we see more A321T routes from America?
The American has a significant surplus of A321T, and it looks like it will continue to be the case:
- This is especially true during the pandemic, given the complete lack of demand between New York and California.
- In general, there had been rumors that the Americans were reconfiguring the A321Ts to a more standard configuration, although there was nothing concrete there.
With the new American & JetBlue Northeast partnership, it looks like we can expect a reduction in US service between New York and Los Angeles:
- American and JetBlue will operate 14 combined daily flights between the New York area (JFK & EWR) and Los Angeles (LAX); that the flights will be divided approximately equally between the two airlines
- Previously, American made up to a dozen flights per day in the market using its own A321T
American and JetBlue to split flights between JFK and LAX
It goes without saying that American will have more A321T in the future than it needs, assuming that American and JetBlue are in fact considering cutting back on transcon service as has been revealed.
Only time will tell if American chooses to launch more A321T routes, or if some of those planes will simply be reconfigured.
At the end of the line
American Airlines will launch daily A321T flights between New York and Orange County starting in the summer of 2021. This will only be the third route to regularly schedule this aircraft.
This announcement definitely caught me off guard – while Orange County is an upscale leisure market, it still seems surprising.
We’ll have to see what the future holds for the US A321Ts – will the airline reconfigure the A321Ts, fly these planes to more markets, or possibly increase service from JFK to LAX and SFO.
Are you surprised to see US A321Ts flying between JFK and SNA?
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