KAREN WALKER WASHINGTON DC In a move designed to steal more high yield market share and publicly address growing dissatisfaction among passengers with US airline service, American Airlines will increase leg room in the economy cabin across its entire fleet.

Even if the percentage of business travellers who switch to American is small as a result, the political kudos that the airline stands to win by such a move could prove significant.

Customer complaints about airline service in the USA are at an all-time high and the Air Transport Association has been forced to issue a list of "voluntary" customer improvements to ward off formal legislation in the shape of a proposed Passenger Rights Bill.

However, American's chairman and chief executive, Don Carty, plays down any political reason behind the move. "This is focused not on congressmen, but on our customers," he says. But Carty also admits: "The government put pressure on us a little bit."

American plans to remove 7,200 seats - 6.4% of its economy cabin capacity - and increase the seat pitch for more than 75,000 economy seats from 78cm (31in) and 81cm to between 86cm and 92cm. The work will cost $70 million, apply to domestic and international fleets and be completed by next year.

"The single biggest request from our customers has been for more space and we are the first airline to respond to that request," says Carty. "We should have responded earlier."

So far, most other US carriers have remained quiet about the move, although United Airlines points out that it introduced an initiative last year to provide extra pitch in the first few rows of its domestic aircraft - these seats are reserved for full-fare economy passengers and premium-level frequent flier members.

There may be another motive behind American's plan. Reducing seat count will help to address the problem of over-capacity on transatlantic routes and the concerns of Wall Street. Deutsche Bank Alex Brown analyst, Susan Donofrio, says such initiatives "certainly keep a lid on capacity growth".

However, she warns that operating costs will not be reduced since the same number of aircraft will be flying. "We expect, however, that fare increases should offset some of these increased costs due to the current state of strong traffic demand. We also think that publicly responding to the concerns of travellers for more leg room can only improve travellers' perception of the airline industry, which has suffered from a recent spate of negative publicity."

Source: Airline Business

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