2. American Airlines: Background
Major U.S. airline headquartered in Forth Worth, Texas.
Operates an extensive global and domestic network, with
scheduled flights all over North America, the Caribbean, South
America, Europe, and Asia.
Its route network focuses on five “cornerstone” hubs: Dallas/Fort
Worth, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago.
Tulsa International Airport (TUL) is its main maintenance base.
Member of the Oneworld airline alliance; manages prices, services,
and scheduling with British Airways and Iberia in the transatlantic
market and with Japan Airlines and Qantas in the transpacific
market.
American Eagle Airlines, SkyWest, Inc., SkyWest Airlines, and
ExpressJet Airlines fly regional flights for American Airlines under
the “American Eagle” brand.
AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2011, and
planned to merge with US Airways Group in February 2013 to form
the world’s biggest airline; the two corporations concluded the
merger on December 9, 2013, with the new holding company
American Airlines Group, Inc. listed on NASDAQ the same day,
even though the actual incorporation will not be finished until a
later date.
The merged airline will carry the American Airlines name and
branding, and will take over the existing US Airways hubs in
Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Phoenix for up to five years under the
terms of an agreement with the United States Department of
Justice and several state attorneys-general.
3. American Airlines: Hubs and focus
cities
Hubs:
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport (New
York)
Los Angeles International Airport
Miami International Airport
O’Hare International Airport (Chicago)
Focus cities:
LaGuardia Airport (New York)
4. American Airlines: Logo
Massimo Vignelli designed the famous “AA” logo
(right) in 1967.
American Airlines was able to make its logo internetfriendly by purchasing the domain aa.com, also its
two-letter IATA airline designator.
American began a new rebranding and marketing
campaign with FutureBrand called “A New American”,
which included a new logo to replace the classic 1967
logo.
American Airlines calls the new logo the “Flight
Symbol” (the eagle and the “A” from the old logo are
merged).
5. American Airlines:
Headquarters
American Airlines is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas,
near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Before it was headquartered in Texas, American Airlines
was headquartered at 633 Third Avenue in the Murray Hill
area of Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
In 1978, American announced that it would relocate its
headquarters to a site at Dallas/Fort Worth International
Airport in 1979; this move affected 1,300 jobs.
Ed Koch, Mayor of New York City at the time, condemned
this move as a “betrayal “of New York City.
American moved to two rented office buildings in Grand
Prairie, Texas.
On January 17, 1983, the airline completed its move into a
$150 million ($351,570,330.77 when regulated for inflation),
550,000-square foot (51,000 m 2) facility in Fort Worth; $147
million (almost $344,538,924.16 when regulated for
inflation) in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bonds
paid for the new headquarters.
American began renting the facility from the airport, which
owns the facility.
6. American Airlines: Destinations
American Airlines serves four continents, rivaling
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, both of which
serve six.
Hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami serve as entries
to the Americas, whereas the hub in Chicago has
become its main entry to Europe and Asia.
New York’s JFK is the main entry for both the
Americas and Europe; the hub in Los Angeles is the
main entry to Asia only.
For many years, Lambert-St. Louis International
Airport was a regional hub, but the airline’s restructure
led to the removal of the airport as a focus city on
April 5, 2010.
In the U.S., American serves the third-biggest number
of global destinations, behind United Airlines and
Delta Air Lines.
7. American Airlines: Partnerships and codeshare
agreements
American Airlines has codeshare agreements with these
airlines:
Air Berlin
Air Tahiti Nui
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
Asiana Airlines
British Airways
British Airways Limited
Cape Air
Cathay Pacific
El Al
Etihad Airways
Fiji Airways
Finnair
Gulf Air
Hainan Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines
Iberia
Japan Airlines
Jet Airways
JetBlue Airways
Jetstar Airways
LAN Airlines
LAN Colombia
Malaysia Airlines
Open Skies
Qantas
Qatar Airways
Royal Jordanian
Seaborne Airlines
TAM Airlines
WestJet
8. American Airlines: Partnerships and codeshare
agreements (cont.)
In particular, American Airlines maintains joint ventures with British Airways, Iberia, and Finnair on transatlantic routes, and
with Japan Airlines and Qantas on transpacific routes.
American additionally flew interchange flight services alongside Alaska Airlines in the 1970s between Texas and Alaska
during the building of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, an interchange agreement that permitted single, no change of aircraft
service between Houston, TX and Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX, and Anchorage, AK and Fairbanks, AK.
The roundtrip routing of this interchange flight was Houston-Dallas/Ft. Worth-Seattle-Anchorage-Fairbanks; Seattle, WA
served as the crossing point at which flight and cabin crews rotated from one airline to the next; both American and Alaska
Airlines provided Boeing 727-200 jetliners, which were operated to provide this interchange service.
9. American Airlines: Fleet
The American Airlines fleet is made up of 616 aircraft
from October 2013; its fleet has a normal age of 14.7
years.
After withdrawing its last Airbus A300 aircraft in 2009,
American Airlines operated an all-Boeing fleet (which
included aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas
prior to its merger with Boeing in 1997), until July
2013, when the first Airbus A319 entered the fleet.
American Airlines ordered 360 and took options for
465 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing on July 20, 2011,
with the intent of replacing its MD-80, 757-200, and
767-200 aircraft; this, according to American Airlines,
is the biggest acquisition of aircraft in aviation history.
19. The End
YouTube links:
Change is in the Air – American Airlines
commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ1tMaI9XMc
American Airlines In Flight Safety Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnBke-S9oGY
