American's New E175 Seats: Which Regional Flights Get Them, and Which Keep the Old Cabin (2026)
✈️ Quick Verdict
What happened: Embraer delivered American's first Embraer 175 fitted with new-generation Recaro seats on 19 October 2026. American says it is the first US airline to put Recaro seats on the E175.
Why it matters more than it sounds: a US scope clause caps the E175 at 76 seats in two classes. The aircraft still has 76 seats, so every inch the slimmer seat saves goes into your knee room rather than into another row. That is the opposite of how most new economy seats arrive.
The catch: this is a new-delivery cabin. American has not said whether the E175s already in service will get the same seats.
Which flights: of the 90 E175s American ordered in March 2024, 33 go to Envoy Air across 2026 and 2027, and 45 to Piedmont Airlines from the first quarter of 2028 at one to two a month for three years. Envoy is the only carrier named for 2026.
The tell: the operating carrier on your booking. An American Eagle flight operated by Envoy Air is the only one that can have this cabin before 2028. Republic and SkyWest E175s are not in the delivery stream at all.
What Embraer actually delivered
Embraer announced on 19 October 2026 that it had handed over the first Embraer 175 fitted with new-generation Recaro seats to American Airlines, for American Eagle regional flying. The seats are slimline, which Embraer describes as giving more personal space and knee room without reducing cushion comfort, and the seatbacks carry device and cup holders. Embraer's framing is that the change brings the E175's main cabin closer to its newer E2 family. The same aircraft also arrives with upgraded data connectivity and a next-generation weather radar, neither of which a passenger will ever notice.
Rhonda Crawford, American's senior vice president of customer experience design and strategy, said American is the first US airline to introduce Recaro seats on the E175. Arjan Meijer, president and chief executive of Embraer Commercial Aviation, framed the seats as evidence of Embraer's continued investment in the platform. Neither company named the seat.
This sits inside a wider programme American announced on 30 September 2025, which covers refreshed cabins on its CRJ700, CRJ900, E170 and E175 fleets, in-seat power at every seat, satellite Wi-Fi across the dual-class regional fleet, and larger overhead bins that American says it is developing with Embraer for its bigger regional aircraft. The bins have not arrived yet.
The seat nobody will name
Embraer called it a new-generation Recaro seat and left it there, which is unusual for a launch announcement and means no published pitch, width or weight. There is a reasonable inference available, and it is worth marking clearly as an inference.
Recaro's E-Jet seats entered Embraer's supplier-furnished equipment catalogue in 2023, qualified by the middle of 2024. The two models in that catalogue were the SL3710 and the BL3710, and the BL3710 was the one with a tablet holder and a six-way adjustable headrest — which lines up with the device holders Embraer has described here. Recaro then renamed its whole product range to R-numbers in 2024, so the branding may well have moved on since. Until Embraer, Recaro or American confirms the model, treat it as unconfirmed rather than assume a designation. We will put the model in this piece and in the American E175 seat guide the moment one of the three publishes it.
Why this one actually helps you, and most new economy seats do not
When an airline fits a slimmer economy seat, the saved inches almost always go into extra rows. That is the whole commercial logic of a slimline retrofit, and it is why a new seat so often means a tighter cabin.
The E175 cannot do that. US pilot scope clauses cap large regional jets at 76 seats in two classes, and American's new E175s are 76-seat, two-class aircraft, exactly as the ones already flying are. The ceiling is contractual, not physical. So when Embraer fits a seat with a slimmer back, there is nowhere for the recovered space to go except in front of the passenger's knees. For once, a slimline seat is unambiguously good news for whoever is sitting in it.
American has not published a pitch figure for the new cabin, and the honest position is that we do not know how much room it adds. The current E175 main cabin sits at about 30in of pitch, with roughly ten Main Cabin Extra seats at about 32in. Whatever the new figure is, the seat count tells you the direction of travel, which is the part that normally goes the other way.
Which flights get it, and when
American ordered 90 E175s on 4 March 2024, alongside 85 A321neos and 85 737 MAX 10s, and said at the time that the E175s would be flown by its wholly owned regional carriers. In June 2025 it allocated 78 of them. That allocation is what makes this story answerable rather than vague:
| Operator | New E175s | When |
|---|---|---|
| Envoy Air | 33 | Across 2026 and 2027 |
| Piedmont Airlines | 45 | From Q1 2028, one to two a month over 36 months |
| Republic Airways | None announced | Flies American Eagle E175s today, not in this delivery stream |
| SkyWest Airlines | None announced | Flies American Eagle E175s today, not in this delivery stream |
Twelve of the 90 are still unallocated publicly. Embraer and American did not say which carrier takes this first Recaro aircraft, but Envoy is the only operator named for 2026 deliveries, so that is where the odds sit.
Read the table forwards and the shape of the next five years is clear. Through 2027 the new cabin is a small and growing minority of Envoy's E175s only. From 2028 Piedmont starts taking aircraft at one or two a month, which runs into 2031. Piedmont's current fleet is 93 ERJ 145s, which stay in service. And unless American announces a retrofit, Republic and SkyWest E175s keep the existing cabin throughout. A traveller booking an American Eagle E175 in 2029 will still be rolling dice.
How to tell before you book
1. Check the operating carrier. American Eagle is a brand, not an airline, and every booking tells you which carrier actually operates the flight. Before 2028, only an aircraft operated by Envoy Air can have this cabin. If your flight says Republic or SkyWest, it does not, and nothing announced so far will change that. This is the only pre-booking check available, and it rules flights out rather than in.
2. Do not expect the seat map to help. The new cabin keeps 76 seats in two classes, so the map looks the same as it does today: First in rows 1 to 4, main cabin from row 8, letters A, C, D and F, and no rows 5, 6 or 7. Nothing about the layout gives the seat generation away, which is exactly why the operator matters.
3. Look at the seatback once you are aboard. The new seats carry a device holder and a cup holder on the back. That is the clearest physical tell, and it is also the best thing about the seat on a two-hour regional flight: somewhere to prop a phone that is not your tray table. Our guide to the version lottery explains why fleets end up like this.
What does not change
The E175 remains the regional jet worth routing yourself onto, and the reasons have nothing to do with the new seat. First class is 1-2, which means 2A, 3A and 4A are solo seats with an aisle and a window to themselves. The main cabin is 2-2, so there is no middle seat anywhere on the aircraft. Row 8 is still the best legroom you can get without buying First, and row 21 is still the one to avoid, being rearmost and next to the lavatory. All of that is in the American E175 seat guide, and the new seats change none of it.
Nor does the E175 get seatback screens. The device holder is the answer, which makes this a bring-your-own-screen aircraft for the foreseeable future. American's August 2026 commitment to put a seatback screen at every seat covers its narrowbody Airbus and Boeing fleets, on new deliveries from 2028 and on retrofitted aircraft; the regional fleet was not part of that announcement.
If you want a sense of how American's regional cabins compare with the competition on the same aircraft, the Delta Embraer 175 guide covers the other big US operator of the type, and the American Embraer 170, CRJ900 and CRJ700 guides cover the aircraft you get instead when the E175 is not on your route.
What American has not said
Four things, and the first is the one that decides whether this story matters to most travellers. American has not said whether the E175s already in service will be fitted with the same Recaro seats, which is the difference between a cabin a minority of passengers will meet by 2031 and one that becomes the fleet standard. It has not published a pitch figure for the new main cabin, or the First and main cabin split on the new aircraft, though the current fleet is 12 and 64. It has not named the seat. And it has not said which routes the first aircraft will fly, which for a regional jet rotating through a hub is a fair thing not to promise.
Frequently asked questions
Can I book a flight with the new seats?
Not deliberately. One aircraft has been delivered, American has not said which routes it will fly, and the booking system does not distinguish seat generations. The most you can do is make sure the flight is operated by Envoy Air, which keeps it possible rather than impossible.
Will my existing American Eagle E175 get these seats?
Unknown. American's 2025 regional programme covers refreshed cabins and new seat coverings across the CRJ700, CRJ900, E170 and E175 fleets, but a cabin refresh is not the same as a new seat, and American has specifically not said whether in-service E175s will get the Recaro product.
Does the new seat mean fewer seats on board?
No, and it does not mean more either. The aircraft stays at 76 seats in two classes, which is the ceiling a US pilot scope clause sets for large regional jets. That cap is why the space the slimmer seat frees up cannot be sold as another row.
Which seat should I pick on an E175?
2A, 3A or 4A if you are in First and travelling alone, because the 1-2 layout makes the A column solo seats. Row 8 if you are in the main cabin, because it is the first Main Cabin Extra row. Avoid row 21. None of this changes with the new seats.
Why are there no rows 5, 6 or 7?
American numbers the E175 cabin with a gap: First runs rows 1 to 4, then the main cabin starts at row 8. It is a numbering convention, not a missing section of aircraft.