How Aviation is Shifting Premium In The United States
In 2025, aviation was a very interesting year, leaving airlines in financially challenging spots and with a lot of incoming growth. In this recent space, airlines are shifting their strategies completely. Whether that’s Frontier Airlines adding a premium cabin, American Airlines shifting most of its aircraft to premium heavy, TAP Air Portugal adding a premium section on flights to America, Air France offering their exclusive La Première first class on flights to more American destinations, or most airlines have shifted their strategies on flights to the United States. In recent years, the demand for premium seats has increased heavily, and airlines are reconfiguring aircraft to match this demand.
European carriers are adding premium cabins on flights to the United States more frequently. An example announced earlier this month is Air France adding First Class to more routes. Their corporate site reports it will now be offered to Atlanta, Boston, Houston, and Tel Aviv. It also reports that “Effective this summer, La Première will be available on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Abidjan, Atlanta, Boston, Dubai, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Tokyo-Haneda, and Washington, D.C. By July 2026, all flights to New York-JFK and Los Angeles will be operated with the new La Première suites. By the end of 2026, the entire La Première network will feature these new cabins.” This report highlights the premium approach to the United States by having their premium offerings primarily be to the United States, and that they are only continuing to add more. This shows the premium strategy shift toward the United States by shifting its aircraft to offer more premium products. Another example is TAP Air Portugal, adding a new option. They added basically a Premium Economy, an option where you pay an upcharge for the middle seat next to you to be blocked off on flights from Portugal to the United States. This is happening because the United States has a strong premium demand, and TAP would make more money selling premium offerings, granted that’s how the demand is shifting. This sums up all the United States strategies from European carriers. They are shifting to premium and, in terms of strategy, are pulling back from a focus on coach seats and, rather, are adding premium offerings.
United States carriers are reconfiguring aircraft to have more premium seats. American Airlines, as an example, is shifting to try and get 50% more premium seats offered throughout its fleet and is investing in customer experience, like I highlighted last week. Delta, an airline that foresaw this, has premium-heavy offerings, and its CEO Ed Bastian added, “We're going to have a great year being the top end of the premium stack in travel,” and that "Every airline in the United States has changed their strategy post-COVID," he claims. "You talk about some of these other airlines, whether it's Spirit going through a second bankruptcy, and you got Frontier saying they're going to put more premium offerings out, Southwest changing their mind, American changing — everyone has changed their mind except Delta." This talks about the premium strategy focused on the United States that airlines are taking. It talks about the change in strategy all airlines are taking to try and focus on their premium offerings, and how the strategy for airlines like United, Southwest, Frontier, and American is shifting and is getting some tailwind. Since COVID, Americans have had an increased value on comfort, and that has dictated more demand for premium seating, and airlines are shifting toward this. That is just like what Ed Bastian said and is going to shift the travel experience, with more premium seating and less coach seating.
In summary, airlines are shifting toward a more premium strategy on United States offerings, and their strategies have taken a tailwind, offering more premium seating and an increased customer experience. This change should make premium seats indirectly cheaper with the larger supply and should allow for a better experience for customers.