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American Airlines 777-300ER Crew Stays at 11 Despite 70 Flagship Suites
The carrier's Project Olympus retrofit adds 26 seats and 18 more business-class suites, but the cabin crew count remains a pandemic-era reduction of 11 flight attendants.
American Airlines has completed the first example of its Project Olympus Boeing 777-300ER retrofit, a cabin overhaul that adds 70 enclosed Flagship Suite business-class seats and raises total capacity from 304 to 330 seats. The aircraft now carries more business and premium-economy seats than any other U.S. carrier's plane, according to American, and Reuters reported the investment is part of a wider push to attract higher-spending travelers and close the profitability gap with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.
What hasn't changed is the number of flight attendants. The 777-300ER operated with 13 crew before October 2020, when American cut the complement to 11 as part of pandemic-era staffing reductions across multiple aircraft types. Simple Flying reported that the reduction survived the recovery of international travel, the restoration of full premium service in late 2021, and now the flagship retrofit that entered service this month.
The change affected the Boeing 777-200ER (from 10 to 9 attendants), the 787-9 (from 10 to 9 on international routes), and the premium transcontinental Airbus A321T (from 6 to 5). On the 777-300ER, staffing went from two flight attendants in First, five in Business, and six in Main Cabin, to two, four, and five respectively, with attendants flexing between functions and cabins.
"APFA strongly objected to any staffing changes during this challenging time, and we did not participate in any discussions related to the staffing level changes," the union said in 2020.
The union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, filed a grievance in December 2020 seeking restoration of the previous formulas and compensation for what it called unreasonable workloads. The case went through arbitration in April 2024. In December 2024, the arbitration board ruled that the collective bargaining agreement allowed management to set new staffing formulas and that American had not assigned an unreasonable workload.
How the 777-300ER compares
The overhauled aircraft's 70 Flagship Suites and 44 premium-economy seats mean 35% of capacity is in premium cabins, compared with 24% for United's 350-seat 777-300ER and 29% for Delta's 306-seat A350-900. American eliminated its eight-seat Flagship First cabin to make room for more business and premium seats.
Among major 777-300ER operators, American's 11-person crew is leaner than Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Singapore Airlines, which each typically operate with 15 crew. Air France uses 13 to 15. United's 22 777-300ERs, however, also operate with 11 attendants as the baseline staffing guideline, according to its union.
The first retrofitted aircraft, N718AN, entered service between New York JFK and Buenos Aires Ezeiza earlier this month. American expects the fleet-wide retrofit of all 20 777-300ERs to be completed during 2027.
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