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Delta to spend $1B on service, fuel efficiency

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. is investing $1 billion over the next three-and-a-half years to add more entertainment options in coach cabins, lie-flat seats for international premium customers, airport VIP lounges, and other customer service enhancements.

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. is investing $1 billion over the next three-and-a-half years to add more entertainment options in coach cabins, lie-flat seats for international premium customers, airport VIP lounges, and other customer service enhancements.

Some of the money will also go to improving fuel efficiency.

The world's biggest airline said today that it will spend roughly $300 million a year through mid-2013 on the initiatives.

The investment includes a new airport lounge in Philadelphia, Bloomberg News reported.

Delta, based in Atlanta, says that rather than invest in new aircraft, it wants to spend money to improve the consistency of services offered to different groups of customers.

Among other things, it will complete the modification of 269 pre-merger Northwest Airlines aircraft to feature Delta's blue leather seats, updated lighting and increased overhead bin space, as well as other amenities.

Delta also will install winglets - vertical stabilizing fins projecting from tips of aircraft wings - on more than 170 Boeing 767-300ER, 757-200 and 737-800 aircraft to extend aircraft range and improve fuel efficiency by as much as 5 percent.

Delta President Ed Bastian said the investment is within the level of capital spending Delta has historically laid out.

Delta, which bought Northwest in October 2008, is scheduled to release fourth-quarter and full-year 2009 financial results on Tuesday. It is expected to post a loss for the fourth quarter and for 2009.