American Airlines looks to be getting into the business of providing their passengers on select international and domestic flights portable media players pre-loaded with video entertainment to help them pass the hours by. American made this announcement today by saying they will be making two types of portable media players immediately available to first and business class passengers on transcontinental flights as well as all passengers on eight MD-80 flights which operate daily between Los Angeles and Chicago.

The PMPs which will grace the laps of those in the upper classes of the international flights (Boeing 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft flying transcontinental routes between New York and Los Angeles and between New York and San Francisco as well as 767-300 aircraft on the Miami-San Francisco route in June) will sport seven-inch, touch-screen monitors and offer up to 12 feature films, up to 15 hours of pre- loaded television, news programs and music videos, 50 music CDs, and 14 American Airlines-branded audio channels. They will come bundled with Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones.  

The PMPs on the MD-80s which fly between Los Angeles and Chicago, meanwhile, will be part of a four-month test. They feature a 4.3-inch monitor along with new high-quality earbud headsets. Passengers will be able to choose up to five feature films, more than three hours of a variety of television programming, up to two hours of the Cartoon Network, music videos, 50 music CDs, and 14 American Airlines-branded audio channels.

It was not revealed who has manufactured the portable media players for American Airlines, though one of the photos shows an Archos brand label.