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American Airlines will bring seat-back TV screens to its narrowbody fleet, reversing a decision made several years ago to move away from the amenity and offer streaming options on customers’ personal devices.

The seat-back screens will be INSTALLED on all new Boeing and Airbus Aircraft planes starting in 2028 and other retrofitted planes will get the feature too. The “next-generation platform” will feature large displays, 4K technology, USB-C charging ports and will allow pairing with customers’ personal headphones and earbuds, according to American.

The entertainment system will also offer a personalized experience, such as movie and show recommendations, interactive flight maps and real-time flight insights.

American also announced new premium seating reconfigurations for some of its aircraft.

This is based off my reporting for The Dallas Morning News.

Does this move the needle for the airline and its customer service?

I scooped this story this morning for The Dallas Morning News. Robert Isom in a letter Monday detailed several leadership changes, including added responsibilities for Devon May, Nat Pieper and Heather Garboden.

Chief comms officer Ron DeFeo, government affairs exec Nate Gatten and tech ops leader Kevin Brickner are departing.

“I recognize that there is a meaningful gap between where we are today and where we know American can — and should — be,” Isom wrote in the letter. “To close that gap, we must improve performance where it matters most: delivering a better experience for customers, running a more reliable operation, strengthening engagement with our team members and generating stronger business results.”

I recently sat down with Nat Pieper, American’s chief commercial officer, for an exclusive interview on the Latin America strategy.

He told me he feels like this is a place they can win and widen the lead on United and Delta. Of course, American expects to serve 100 destinations in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean by the end of the year.

Exclusive reporting is for The Dallas Morning News

A breaking story from The Dallas Morning News:

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant has been detained by ICE, according to TWU Local 556, the union that represents the airline’s flight attendants.

The circumstances surrounding the detention, including where and when it occurred, are not known at this time. We are following this story closely.

From the Dallas Morning News:

The new 37,000-square-foot Admirals Club at DFW Airport will be in Terminal C, where American recently opened the first phase of a $3 billion expansion at the airport.

And a Provisions lounge is coming to Terminal F.

Reporting from The Dallas Morning News -

Frontier will retrofit its entire fleet of more than 180 aircraft with Starlink. The first Starlink-equipped plane is planned for launch in 2027.

Frontier says it will be the first U.S. airline to offer customers access to Starlink's internet through a new system directly managed by Starlink and touted the service's gate-to-gate connectivity potential for its employees, saying it will lead to "improved operational performance and more seamless customer service."

In combination with Frontier, other members of Indigo Partners' portofilio Wizz Air, Volaris, JetSMART, and Cebu Pacific plan to install Starlink on over 1,000 aircraft, according to Frontier. 

There had been some buzz online after some people noticed a roundtrip domestic flight added between DFW and JFK on the 77W in September. Well,
The Dallas Morning News got the answer to why that is 🏈

I just scooped this story for The Dallas Morning News: Steve Johnson, who helmed the commercial organization during a period of uncertainty for 18 months, is retiring at the end of the year.

More to come.

I recently had an interesting conversation with the vice president of TWU Local 556, the union that represents nearly 20,000 Southwest Airlines flight attendants, about the airline reversing its policy on jumpseat access.

Up until earlier this year, jumpseats could be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis by ANY employee. That policy was changed in April to be reserved by only pilots and flight attendants. Less than three months later, the policy has changed again back to all-employee access.

Among many things that stood out, this quote was definitely eye-opening about the union's stance on the issue, which they say is a safety matter.

“It’s something that the company has crafted as a travel benefit, but again, that’s where we object,” Sam Wilkins said. “We don’t just see it as an extra seat that they could occupy as a travel benefit. It is a seat that should be occupied by flight attendants or pilots or qualified employees.”

“We believe that anyone that sits on that jump seat should be able to command an evacuation, and that they should have the same qualifications as flight attendants.”

Hi all!

I'm the aviation reporter with The Dallas Morning News. I'm exploring a story about affordability/travelers changing their plans for this year because of fares increasing. If you changed your trip because it became more unaffordable for your budget, I want to hear from you (bonus points if you're in the D-FW area). I can be reached via DM or jordan.parker@dallasnews.com.

Thanks in advance.

Hi all!

I'm the aviation reporter with The Dallas Morning News. I'm exploring a story about affordability/travelers changing their plans for this year because of fares increasing. If you changed your trip because it became more unaffordable for your budget, I want to hear from you (bonus points if you're in the D-FW area). I can be reached via DM or jordan.parker@dallasnews.com.

Thanks in advance.

From The Dallas Morning News, which got the first look at the terminal extension:

The 115,000-square-foot pier expansion brings five rebuilt gates and four new ones. American started using two of the gates, Gates C33 and C34, in the new extension “a couple of months ago,” Jim Moses, the airline’s senior vice president of hub operations at DFW Airport, said in an exclusive interview.

“Getting into those gates early allowed our team members to get used to working in this new environment," Moses said. "There is a lot of new technology in there, right? So there was a lot of change management, a lot of understanding new processes, new ways we’re going to operate in this facility.”

Exclusive Dallas Morning News story: After months of teasing their rollout, American Airlines finally launched its long-awaited electronic boarding gates at its new Terminal C extension. Read more by clicking the gift link!

Reporting from The Dallas Morning News: “I think we — our network competitors, you can tell, we’re all focused on ratable production of results, steady production of results, sustainable margins," Jordan said while speaking at the Bernstein conference on Thursday.” He continued, “And so I do think that produces a backdrop where we’ll — there’ll be — we’ll certainly not attempt to give some of these fare increases back.”

And Jordan seemed to indicate that further fare increases may be in store for customers.

“If you just took today’s revenue environment or yield environment and you — and you took fuel prices as they are today. No, no, it’s not close,” Jordan said in response to a question about whether Southwest can cover the jet fuel price hike “at the latest round of fare increases.”

“So you still — you need further increases to fully cover the rise in fuel this far.”

BREAKING: American Airlines will retrofit more than 500 Airbus aircraft with Starlink. Boeing aircraft, including widebodies, will not receive the retrofit at this time, the airline told The Dallas Morning News.

More info in the free gift link.

Hello all,

I'm the aviation reporter for The Dallas Morning News. I'm working on a feature story about the McKinney Airport expansion and am hoping to speak with a couple of residents about how they feel about it (all opinions/viewpoints welcome). If you'd like to talk on the record (your full name would be used), please private message me.

Thanks in advance!

SCOOP from The Dallas Morning News: Southwest Airlines laid off approximately 75 people in what the airline said was an “operational restructuring.”

The layoffs come just weeks after the airline reported record first-quarter operating revenue of $7.2 Billion.