AA Upgrades Website, Seats, Airport Facilities

<B> AA Upgrades Website, Seats, Airport Facilities</B>

By Jay Campbell

With revenues derived from online bookings leaping to about 3 percent of overall sales in 1998, improving its Website heads a list of passenger-oriented service improvements at American Airlines.

John Samuel, formerly AA's director of distribution and now its director of interactive marketing, in June said, "Our booked revenue on the AA site has increased 350 percent since this time last year," when online sales hovered around 1 percent.

While 3 percent may not sound like much, on AA's annual sales of about $17 billion (<I>BTN,</I> May 25) it amounts to about $500 million worth of electronic commerce.

That increase prompted AA to spend 10 months redesigning its Website, which now has a number of personalized features for AAdvantage members, including a new sale finder feature and special offers tailored to the traveler's favorite destinations (see story, page 40).

Along with its cyberspace growth, AA also is gearing up new technologies to make airport passenger processing faster and easier. For example, the airline will deploy in 65 U.S. airports a new wireless mobile curbside podium for use by skycaps that connects to Sabre using through radio frequency. AA also is finding new uses and streamlining benefits of its enhanced gate readers for boarding.

Asked whether airport gate agents are resisting these and other technologies, such as e-ticketing, AA managing director of airport automation Ken Bostock acknowledged, "That's a constant concern."

Meanwhile, American unveiled new designs that will replace 55 percent of the carrier's first, business and economy class seats as part of the most extensive interior refurbishment in the airline's history.

The carrier is spending $400 million to upgrade its 1970s-style cabin scheme to a more modern look with ties to its exterior appearance, said vice president of marketing planning Henry Joyner.

The seats feature a new composite that enables a thinner structure and more room on the same space of floor. All new seats will be installed in American's new Boeing 777s and 737s, as well as older 767s, 727s, and MD-80s.

The new first class seats will lie back sleeper-style, like those initially offered only by Air France and British Airways. On some MD-80s that operate in big business markets such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, the carrier is upping the number of first class seats from 14 to 20.

Seats in business class also were ergonomically designed and feature a six-way headrest, laptop power ports and AT&T telephones. In economy, every seat offers an adjustable headrest and selected seats will have laptop power ports.

American also is making a $43 million investment in airport facilities, including the introduction of shower facilities in 75 airports systemwide. The showers will be available in every AA international gateway by next year. The carrier also is upgrading some Admirals Club lounges, including those at Dallas Fort Worth and Tokyo airports.