United Airlines, the world’s second- largest carrier, plans to put digital entertainment systems on some planes and clean the aircraft more often to attract customers on U.S. flights.
The UAL Corp. unit will replace the video systems on 269 planes used in the U.S. with digital servers by 2009’s second quarter, Tom Abraham, director of in-line maintenance, said in a recorded message to employees Friday.
Chicago-based United also will increase “deep-clean” services, such as shampooing carpets, by 20 percent in the year starting in September, he said. United, larger rival American Airlines and other big carriers are overhauling international fleets to win more business on routes where they don’t compete with U.S. discounters.
At the same time, United doesn’t want to neglect passengers in the United States, which accounts for about 60 percent of its capacity, chief executive Glenn Tilton said.
“There’s no doubt that some of this work is overdue,” Tilton said in the recording.
