American Airlines
today premiered a wide variety of on-demand entertainment content,
including movies, TV shows, games and electronic newspapers and books,
packaged in a new, hand-held Personal Entertainment Device. This inflight
entertainment concept will be tested on select flights in several markets
during the next three months as part of American’s ongoing effort to
provide customers what they value. “We are very excited to share this new solution with our passengers as
they evaluate the latest in inflight entertainment,” said Mary McKee,
Managing Director - Inflight Products for American Airlines. “We believe
our customers will value the ability to choose from a wide selection of
entertainment options and will find that their flight is too short to
enjoy all that these devices offer. The content is designed to have broad
appeal—from the seasoned road warrior to families flying with their
children.”

The easy-to-use technology allows American to offer a large selection of
entertainment options including:

—Early-window movies (after-theater release, but before DVD or video
release)—Music videos—American’s award-winning inflight audio
programming - 12 channels offering a variety of musical genres and
business programs—TV comedy and drama programming, such as Cheers, Law
& Order, and Without a Trace—Animated children’s programs—Digital
newspapers—Audio book excerpts—Card games, such as Solitaire and
Black Jack

The lightweight, portable devices have an 8.9” wide Super Video Graphic
Array (SVGA) Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen, support continuous play
with a battery life of approximately five hours and offer two output
headphone jacks.

During take-off and landing, the devices will be housed in a special cart
that doubles as a content loading and charging docking station while on
the ground. Digital newspapers will be updated daily and other content,
including movies and TV programs, will be updated on a regular basis. The
secure, digitally encrypted content will be stored on the hard drive of
each device.

During the test, the devices will be distributed at no charge to
passengers in the First Class cabin. Passengers in the Main cabin can rent
the devices for a fee of $10 to $12 (depending on the market) by simply
swiping their credit card on the portable unit. All of the “on demand”
entertainment options will be available for that one flat fee. There will
be no cash transactions for the devices.

The units will be available in selected Chicago/Los Angeles, DFW/Seattle,
Fort Lauderdale/Los Angeles and Chicago/Seattle routes. The test will run
through early February 2005.
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