Nearly a decade after cutting seatback screens on all but large aircraft, American Airlines has at last reversed that decision, announcing this week that all the carrier's passengers will eventually have "state-of-the-art seatback entertainment screens" as part of a fleetwide upgrade.
That covers all of American's incoming plane deliveries beginning in 2028 as well as existing narrowbody aircraft, which will be retrofitted with the technology.
In addition to incorporating 4K images and some of the "largest displays" on planes of this size in North America, the new screens will be equipped with USB-C charging ports for your other devices and Bluetooth audio connectivity to work with your wireless earbuds and headphones.
At the moment, only about 140 of American's long-haul planes have seatback screens, according to the carrier's announcement. The airline's narrowbody fleet, however, comprises more than 800 planes, as Travel Weekly points out.
That's likely why the screen comeback aboard American flights won't be complete anytime soon. The company's announcement sets "early next decade" as the target date.
Why did American Airlines get rid of seatback screens in the first place?
Back in 2017, American curtailed seatback screens considerably because the company said they were too expensive to install and they made the planes too heavy, pushing up fuel costs. Executives suggested then we'd all prefer using our own phones anyway for in-flight entertainment.
Turns out that assumption was incorrect, given that American's executives now cite "customer preference and customer satisfaction improvements" when justifying the reversal, as Heather Garboden, the airline's chief customer officer, told CNBC.
And those arguments about clunky seatback screens being too expensive to install and maintain?
“The technology has advanced so much from when we made this decision more than a decade ago," said Garboden.
American's efforts to catch up with Delta and United—and how it will affect you
CNBC's report suggests a more pressing reason for the change: American's profit gap with rival carriers United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which made $805 million and $1.6 billion, respectively, in second-quarter profits, whereas American reported a comparatively piddling $71 million gain.
Both United and Delta have expanded seatback screen availability across their fleets in recent years.
At the same time, all three airlines have discovered that putting the financial squeeze on economy passengers hasn't hurt the bottom line one bit, adding ever-more premium seating options at expensive prices while increasing restrictions on economy flyers and blocking access to perks such as complimentary upgrades (as American itself recently did for passengers in coach).
To that end, American also announced that, along with those seatback screens, the company is adding another row of first class seats on all narrowbody planes as well as more "Main Cabin Extra" seats that have more legroom but higher fares than regular economy seats.
"Today, premium seating is approximately 25% of seats on narrowbody departures and in the coming years, that number will grow to approximately 40%," American's release brags.
Of course, that means there will be more competition for fewer economy class seats, inevitably making it pricier for all of us to fly.
But hey, at least there will be another glowing rectangle inches from your nose by some point in the early 2030s.