American Airlines to remove eight business class seats on 787s to add more premium economy

American Airlines senior manager of communications Joshua Freed stated the carrier plans to remove eight business class seats from its fleet of Boeing 787-8 aircraft, in order to accommodate an increased number of premium economy seats (Bloomberg, 19-Sep-2018). The carrier expects to finish retrofitting the 20 aircraft by the middle of 2019, Mr Freed said, by which time the business cabin will offer only 20 seats compared to 28 in premium economy. Mr Freed said "people want" premium economy and "they're paying for it".