American Airlines CEO Says 30% of Seats Generate Half of Revenue, Driving Fleet Reconfiguration

The K-shaped economy is taking flight.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Wednesday that just 30% of its seats account for half of the company's revenue, a proportion that has the Fort Worth-based carrier and competitors large and small ripping up existing airplane configurations to add more first class and other higher-yielding options.

"Those 30% of seats, they're only going to grow in our fleet as the reconfigurations come on board as the new aircraft deliveries come on," Isom said at a Morgan Stanley industry conference, referring to the carrier's premium seat options.

The carrier earlier this month unveiled a monster 70-suite business class cabin on its largest aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, with more planes still awaiting their remodeling.

American had fallen behind its large-airline competitors in profits. Isom has said that adding premium seating to capitalize on higher-spending customers, a resilient and bright spot in air travel, is key, especially as airlines try to cover this year's surge in fuel costs, their second-largest expense after labor.

Even smaller and budget carriers like Allegiant Air and JetBlue Airways are adding upgraded seat options to appeal to those flyers.

Isom told CNBC in June that the airline is also planning a revamp of its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners and that new interiors on its 777-200s are also on tap. The airline is set to order new wide-body aircraft this year, Isom said.