American Airlines is retrofitting its planes, adding main cabin seats that are wider and can command higher fares.
The makeovers are part of Fort Worth-based American’s (Nasdaq: AAL) plan to boost revenue by giving passengers more seating options.
The retrofits on the American Airlines 777-200s involve tearing out 40 main cabin economy seats and replacing them with 24 premium economy seats, which are wider and essentially the same as most of American's domestic first class seats
American has several classes of seating. For a rundown of the different seating options, click here.
The airline is also standardizing its fleet of 777s to streamline scheduling, maintenance, cleaning and other tasks.
American's reconfiguration of its 777 planes will be completed in December. It takes about six days to strip out and replace seats, rewire the electronics and finish the upgraded interiors.
