Nearly a decade after ripping entertainment screens out of its domestic fleet to cut costs, American Airlines is now "seriously considering" putting them back, a quiet admission that the original move was a mistake passengers never stopped noticing.
A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the carrier could make a decision as early as next month on whether to reinstall seat-back screens across its narrow-body aircraft. The potential reversal would be part of a broader overhaul of in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi, with discussions already underway involving SpaceX's Starlink, Amazon's Project Leo satellite constellation, and Amazon's content library.
If the airline follows through, the project would touch a fleet of staggering size. American operates more than 790 narrow-body Boeing and Airbus jets, with another 280-plus on order, according to the company's own annual filing. Its wide-body planes already carry screens. The narrow-body fleet, the workhorses of domestic routes, went without.
American pulled seat-back screens from its mainline narrow-body aircraft almost a decade ago. The rationale was straightforward: save money on equipment costs and the extra fuel burned hauling the weight. At the time, the airline bet that passengers would be content streaming free movies, TV shows, and live television on their own phones, tablets, and laptops.
When the airline began phasing screens out of new Boeing 737 MAX deliveries, it told employees the trade-off would be painless. Fox News reported that American said in a memo to employees:
"Every customer with a phone, tablet or laptop will be able to watch free movies and TV shows from our extensive on-board library, as well as free live television channels, all without purchasing an in-flight Internet connection."
American also pledged to install power outlets at every seat on half of its domestic narrow-body fleet before the end of 2018. The pitch was simple: your device is the screen; we'll keep it charged.
But the pitch never fully landed with travelers. Anyone who has tried to prop a phone on a tray table for a three-hour flight, or watched a toddler knock a tablet off a seatback, understands the gap between corporate theory and coach-class reality. And while American was stripping amenities, its competitors were spending money to add them.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines invested heavily in new cabins and more modern entertainment systems. SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service has made inroads across the industry, signing up United, Hawaiian Airlines, and Qatar Airways for in-flight Wi-Fi. JetBlue Airways led the charge on offering free Wi-Fi, a move that Southwest Airlines, Delta, United, and eventually American itself all followed in recent years.
The competitive pressure is real. Southwest Airlines recently ended its open seating policy in a major shift driven by traveler preferences, a reminder that airlines ignore customer demands at their peril. United has been adjusting its MileagePlus rules for basic economy flyers, tweaking the loyalty equation to keep passengers from drifting to competitors. And United now requires headphones on all flights, another sign that carriers are actively rethinking the onboard experience rather than coasting on the status quo.
American itself has begun adding more premium seats to both narrow-body and wide-body planes. The seat-back screen discussion fits that pattern, an airline trying to claw back ground it voluntarily surrendered.
The potential revamp goes beyond bolting screens onto seatbacks. The person familiar with the matter said American is in discussions with SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon Leo as potential providers of in-flight Wi-Fi. Elon Musk's SpaceX has already built a customer base among major carriers, and the satellite competition between Starlink and Amazon's constellation could give American leverage on pricing and performance.
On the content side, American is talking with Amazon about loading the screens with Amazon Prime video, music, and potentially even a shopping feature that would let passengers use frequent-flyer miles for purchases. The airline currently has a deal with Apple that lets customers stream Apple Music and Apple TV+ content. Whether an Amazon partnership would supplement or replace that arrangement remains unclear.
Heather Garboden, American's chief customer officer, signaled the airline's shifting thinking in an interview with CNBC last fall:
"I think of where the technology was a decade ago, and where it can be today, or even a few years from today. Hopefully the complexity is less."
That comment, "hopefully the complexity is less", is telling. The original screens were heavy, expensive to maintain, and quickly outdated. Garboden's framing suggests American wants lighter, cheaper, more easily updated hardware. Whether the math actually works better this time is the open question.
No final decision has been announced. The source described American as "seriously considering" the move, not committing to it. Several large unknowns remain. Which narrow-body aircraft types would get screens first? Would the rollout cover the existing fleet of 790-plus jets, or only the 280-plus planes on order? Would Starlink or Amazon Leo win the Wi-Fi contract, or would American split the business?
Amazon declined to comment on the discussions. Neither SpaceX nor American has publicly confirmed the Wi-Fi talks. The timeline, a possible decision "as early as next month", suggests the airline is far enough along to have options on the table, but not so far that anything is locked in.
For the flying public, the details matter less than the direction. American spent years telling passengers that personal devices were good enough. Rivals disagreed, invested accordingly, and won customers. Now American is circling back to what it took away.
Markets reward companies that listen to their customers. The question for American is whether it took a decade too long to hear them.