American to upgrade N.Y. flights

American Airlines Inc. is adding amenities to its transcontinental flights, upping the ante in the battle for high-end customers in the lucrative market.

American is expected to announce today that it will spend $20 million to upgrade the 767-200 wide body jetliners that it flies from Los Angeles and San Francisco to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Improvements will include new seats with electric adjustment controls in first class and portable video screens that play music, movies, TV shows and video games.

American currently has 11 nonstop flights a day from Los Angeles International Airport to JFK, the No. 1 air travel market in the country in terms of passenger revenue. American accounts for about 70% of that traffic.

“This is one of the bedrock routes of our system,” said C. David Cush, senior vice president of global sales for American Airlines.

“That’s why we’re making this investment.”

American is a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.