American says a minority of its seats now accounts for half of its revenue.American says a minority of its seats now accounts for half of its revenue.
The K-shaped economy is taking flight.
American AirlinesRobert Isom said Wednesday that just 30% of its seats account for half of the company’s revenue, a proportion that has the Fort Worth-based carrier and competitors large and small ripping up existing airplane configurations to add more first class and other higher-yielding options.
“Those 30% of seats, they’re only going to grow in our fleet as the reconfigurations come on board as the new aircraft deliveries come on,” Isom said at a Morgan Stanley industry conference, referring to the carrier’s premium seat options.
The carrier earlier this month unveiled a monster 70-suite business class cabin on its largest aircraft, a Boeing
American had fallen behind its large-airline competitors in profits. Isom has said that adding premium seating to capitalize on higher-spending customers, a resilient and bright spot in air travel, is key, especially as airlines try to cover this year’s surge in fuel costs, their second-largest expense after labor.
Even smaller and budget carriers like Allegiant AirJetBlue Airways
Isom told CNBC in June that the airline is also planning a revamp of its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners and that new interiors on its 777-200s are also on tap. The airline is set to order new wide-body aircraft this year, Isom said.
