Delta Air
Lines next year will begin equipping its 16-plane Boeing 747 fleet with full
flat-bed seats in business class and newly designed economy seats with personal
entertainment screens and more under-seat storage capacity, the carrier said on
Thursday. Delta's 747s primarily fly from Tokyo's Narita International Airport.
The upgrades
will begin in summer 2011, and Delta expects them to be complete by summer
2012.
The moves are
part of a three-and-a-half year, billion-dollar strategic plan centered on the
customer experience that Delta announced in January, in which the carrier will
install the BusinessElite lie-flat seats and the in-seat entertainment screens on
dozens of long-haul aircraft. Delta previously has said the business-class
upgrades would appear on all service to Europe by 2013.
"The
multimillion-dollar investment we are making to completely revitalize our transoceanic
fleet speaks to our strong commitment to the Asian market," Delta
president Ed Bastian said in a statement.