Delta Airlines Inc. plans to expand first class seating on its domestic fleet by 13 percent within 3 years to help win more of the business travelers who pay the maximum fares.


The changes, to be completed by mid-2013, will add more than 1,200 new seats in response to customers' interest in larger premium cabins, Delta said lately in a statement. The Atlanta-based airline is lessening galley space to make room.

Filling the most costly seats at the front of airplane cabins has been crucial to U.S. airlines’ efforts to return to profit in 2010 while business travel rebounds following the recession. Corporate customers are prized as they typically pay the highest prices and take to the air more often.

The move by Delta Airlines is part of $2 billion in previously announced spending that includes installing lie-flat seats for overseas flights and overhauling amenities such as a terminal at Kennedy airport. First-class capacity is by now the most among U.S. carriers.

The latest upgrades will put 2 to 6 new first-class seats on Boeing Co. MD-88, MD-90 and 767-300 jets during 2011, and 4 first-class seats will be added to Boeing 757-200s by June 2013. Delta said it has completed installing 9 first-class seats earlier this year on some Bombardier Inc. CRJ-700 regional jets. With those planes, the changes cover up 350 aircrafts.