American Preparing to Expand International 757 Flying

(MoneyWatch)  Continental has been doing it for years. Delta, US Airways, and Northwest have ramped up as well. United, well ok, United doesn't do it at all. But American's limited 757 Transatlantic service is about to grow up as the airline sets aside a certain number of planes to have a full international premium product.

Airliners.net has a copy of an internal memo from American detailing the 757 changes. The following changes will occur to the 18 757s that will receive this makeover.

• Sixteen angled lie-flat business class seats will be installed; down from 22 domestic first class now. This is consistent with American's other business class products, but the wording of the memo makes it sound like it might be a different seat.
• There will still be 166 coach seats, and they won't get much improvement. The cabin will get a refreshed look and the overhead screens will be LCDs, but there won't be any in-seat video or anything like that.

So, it's only a net loss of 6 seats onboard, but I'm sure they'll be able to recoup that by having a competitive premium product. Once these changes are done, they will be able to open up some new routes. I'd look for Transatlantic operations out of Boston to larger European cities and from JFK to smaller European cities. We might also see some new long haul flying in Latin America as well.