en.Wedoany.com Reported - American Airlines has converted Row 21 (seat 21F) into a hard tabletop and prohibited passenger reservations on some Embraer E170 aircraft operated by Envoy Air and Republic Airways. This practice, first reported and analyzed by Gary Leff of View From The Wing, aims to comply with regional scope clauses and control the number of flight attendants on board.
The direct reason for blocking this seat is that operating the E170 with a full capacity of 66 seats would violate American Airlines' contract with its pilots' union. By removing the seat cushion and installing a permanent table, the total number of actual seats on the aircraft is limited to 65. American Airlines, as the owner of Envoy Air and through capacity purchase agreements with Republic Airways, has strict limits on aircraft with 66 to 76 seats in its own fleet. The proportion of such aircraft in the mainline fleet of this oneworld member airline must not exceed 40%. Blocking one seat allows the aircraft to avoid counting toward this profitable seat category quota.
For the operators, retaining the standard cabin layout and simply classifying seat 21F as a "non-seatable position" is more time- and labor-efficient than removing the seat for custom modification. The seats share track attachments and trim, and removal would require reapplication for gap and airworthiness regulatory approvals. Keeping the original layout makes it easier to reinstall the seat cushion in the future, quickly restoring the cabin to a standard 66-seat configuration.
Scope clauses are contractual restrictions negotiated by unions to limit the number, size, or total seat capacity of aircraft that major U.S. airlines can outsource to regional partners, thereby protecting the employment and wages of mainline pilots. Due to the ongoing impact of such restrictions, regional aircraft like the E170, E175, or CRJ series continue to be widely operated by major carriers such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, and United Airlines. Currently, the tabletop seat in Row 21 has been retained as a permanent configuration.
