United Airlines plans to add more than 1,600 premium seats to its fleet, including larger Polaris business class cabins on long-haul routes and more two-cabin aircraft for regional service. The changes will occur over the next two years.
The carrier is reconfiguring Boeing 767-300ER aircraft to have 46 Polaris seats, 16 more than the prior configuration, as well as 22 Premium Plus seats for a premium economy cabin, 47 Economy Plus seats and 52 Economy seats. The configuration represents the highest proportion of premium seats on a widebody aircraft flown by a U.S. carrier, according to United. The first of these aircraft will begin service between Newark and London within the next several weeks, and 21 reconfigured aircraft will be in the fleet by the end of 2020.
By the end of 2019, pending government certification, United plans to add 50 50-seat Bombardier CRJ 550 aircraft to its fleet, each with 10 United First seats, 20 Economy Plus seats and 20 Economy seats. Those aircraft will replace single-cabin 50-seaters and are slotted to first appear on flights operated by United regional partner GoJet in the second half of this year, first in Chicago O'Hare and then in Newark. The aircraft also feature storage closets for carry-on luggage so passengers won't have to gate-check their bags.
Additionally, United is adding first class seats to its Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. In the fall, it will begin increasing the count on A319s from eight to 12. Early next year, it will begin increasing the first class seats on almost 100 A320 aircraft from 12 to 16. Those reconfigurations should be complete by the middle of 2020, according to United.