In early 2025, American Airlines announced it would reverse course on its strategy, and become more premium, as it fell further and further behind the competition. We’ve seen the airline make lots of (individually) minor announcements since then, all intended to improve the passenger experience.
Well, today American has made its single biggest passenger experience announcement since then, as the airline has decided to again install seat back screens on all narrow body aircraft, a major departure from the carrier’s strategy in recent years. This had been rumored for some time, and is now official.
Separately, American has committed to greatly increasing the number of premium seats in its narrow body fleet (including both first class and Main Cabin Extra), which I’ll cover in a separate post.
American installing seat back TVs on all narrow body planes
American will start installing seat back TVs on all of its narrow body Airbus and Boeing planes (in other words, everything except regional jets). These new installations build on the more than 140 long haul aircraft that already have seat back TVs.
American is promising a next generation platform offering stunning picture quality, seamless connectivity, and personalized content. Specifically, American states that it will offer:
- Industry leading screen sizes, among the largest offered on narrow body aircraft in North America, with large format premium displays
- 4K technology with brilliant color, contrast, and clarity, for immersive viewing
- Expanded content and partnerships, with access to a broad selection of movies, TV, music, games, and content, with the opportunity to introduce new experiences and partnerships
- A personalized entertainment experience, with tailored movie and show recommendations, and interactive, enhanced flight maps, with destination information and real time insights
- USB-C charging ports at every seat, to help keep devices charged
- Bluetooth audio connectivity, allowing passengers to pair their wireless headphones with the entertainment
Keep in mind that American is also going to start introducing Starlink Wi-Fi as of early 2027, so the airline is promising a much more comprehensive system for staying connected inflight.
Here’s how American Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden describes this:
“We’re making one of the most significant investments in the onboard experience in our history. From next-generation seatback entertainment at every seat to substantially more premium seating options, these enhancements will give our customers more ways to relax, stay connected and enjoy their journey.”
When will American install seat back TVs on narrow body planes?
Unsurprisingly, we’ll have to be patient. American will begin installing seat back TVs on narrow body planes as of 2028. Specifically, we’ll see it installed on newly delivered Airbus and Boeing narrow body planes as of then, and that’s also around the time that we should see a retrofit of existing aircraft.
American is promising to roll out these new displays “as quickly as possible,” with full fleet installation expected to be completed by the early 2030s. So I would expect it’ll be at least five to six years from now before American completes this project, best case scenario.
My take on American’s reversal on inflight entertainment
If you ask me, today’s announcement is American’s single biggest investment in the passenger experience since the airline announced its strategy shift over 18 months ago. In general, it’s fantastic to see this, as it’s a step in the right direction, in terms of catching up with the competition. Now, a few thoughts…
First of all, this announcement is good for “vibes” among both customers and employees, but it’s unlikely to materially change anything about American’s financial situation or the competitive dynamics for several years. This project will only start in 2028, and that’s a best case scenario timeline, with it taking into the 2030s for the project to be complete. Admittedly this is true of just about all improvements in the airline industry, since almost nothing happens overnight.
I guess American needed to do this to catch up with the competition, but one wonders how much this will actually change passenger loyalty in the long run, outside of American’s core hubs.
The biggest issue is that American has completely squandered the past decade — the airline went from installing seat back TVs, to ripping them out years later, to installing them again years later. This is just absolutely wild to me. While I think the decision to install seat back entertainment is the right move, it just seems like there’s no accountability here.
The issue is that when you have two competitors who are working hard to improve, it’s really difficult to make up for a decade that was completely wasted when it comes to passenger experience investments, especially given the long horizon for any projects in the airline industry.
I have to imagine that American’s fairly new Chief Commercial Officer, Nat Pieper (who seems like a great guy), was behind this decision. He was at Delta back in 2009-2015, and was head of fleet at the airline, and that’s largely when decisions were made to introduce seat back TVs. I have a lot more faith in him than I do in American CEO Robert Isom.
Either way, this is a huge step in the right direction, especially along with increasing the number of first class and extra legroom seats. However, American still has a lot of ground to make up when it comes to customer service, reliability, its long haul route network, etc.
Bottom line
American Airlines has announced that it will introduce seat back entertainment throughout its narrow body fleet, with among the largest screens in North America, bluetooth audio, etc. The project will start in 2028, and is expected to be completed in the early 2030s.
This is a step in the right direction, and is arguably American’s biggest passenger experience improvement announcement to date. The catch is that when you’re so far behind, it’s not easy to catch up, especially as competitors are also improving.
What do you make of American reversing course on seat back entertainment?
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