Sneak Peek At New American Airlines Airbus

American Airlines has a new plane in the sky, and it's the first of it's kind for Tulsa's largest employer.

American Airlines is rebuilding its fleet of airplanes as it makes plans to merge and remake itself into a leaner airline.

One part of that is a new airplane. It's an Airbus A-319, the first Airbus in American's fleet and part of 460 new aircraft coming into service at the airline.

The outside sports the new American logo; the inside has leather seats with an entertainment screen on every one, with plenty to watch and WiFi.

"You could fly around the world 15 times and not repeat the same entertainment options," said American Design Manager Brady Byrnes.

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While the merger at American is under scrutiny by the Justice Department, the airline continues to advance towards reinventing itself with more fuel efficient airplanes.

The revamped fleet includes 777-300s and new 737s, but other than the size of the plane, the passengers shouldn't notice much difference because they'll all soon have similar interiors.

"One of the things we're really concerned about and strive for is a consistent customer experience. So the new 737 deliveries will mimic this to the greatest extent possible and for the most part will be indistinguishable between the Airbus and the Boeing fleet," Byrnes said.

The Tulsa Maintenance Base mostly works on Boeing aircraft now and the airline says it hasn't decided which bases will handle which elements of work for the new Airbus planes.

The airline just took delivery of the new Airbus. It starts flying passengers on routes inside the U.S. next month.