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American Airlines is the largest airline in the world in terms of total passengers transported and fleet size, and the second-largest airline in the world (behind Air France-KLM) in terms of total operating revenues. A subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, the airline is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. American operates scheduled flights throughout the United States, as well as flights to Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Japan, China, and India. The chairman and CEO of AA is Gerard Arpey. In 2005, the airline netted over 98 million RPMs.

As of February 2006, American serves 171 cities with a fleet of 707 aircraft. American carries more passengers between the US and Latin America (12.1 million in 2004) than any other airline, and is also strong in the transcontinental market.

American has five hubs: Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Miami (MIA), St. Louis (STL), and San Juan (SJU). Dallas/Fort Worth is the airline's largest hub, with AA operating over 84 percent of flights at the airport and traveling to more destinations than from any of its other hubs. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and New York City (JFK) serve as a focus cities and international gateways. American operates maintenance bases at Tulsa (TUL), Kansas City (MCI), and Fort Worth Alliance (AFW).

American Eagle Airlines is an airline based in Fort Worth, Texas. It is a regional airline partner of American Airlines, which are both wholly owned by AMR Corporation.

American is a founding member of the oneworld airline alliance.

History

Formation

American Airlines developed from a conglomeration of about 82 small airlines through a series of corporate acquisitions and reorganizations: initially, the name American Airways was used as a common brand by a number of independent air carriers. These included Southern Air Transport in Texas, Southern Air Fast Express (SAFE) in the western US, Universal Aviation in the Midwest (which operated a transcontinental air/rail route in 1929), and Colonial Air Transport in the Northeast.

On January 25, 1930, American Airways was incorporated as a single company, with routes from Boston, New York and Chicago, Illinois to Dallas, and a transcontinental route from Dallas to Los Angeles. The airline operated its routes with all-metal Fokker Trimotors and Ford Trimotors. In 1934 American began flying Curtiss Condor biplanes fitted with sleeping berths.

American Airlines before World War II

In 1934, American Airways Company, in financial straits, was acquired by E.L. Cord, who renamed the company "American Airlines". Cord hired Texas businessman C.R. (Cyrus Rowlett) Smith to run the company. Early in its history, the company was headquartered at Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois. Smith worked closely with Donald Douglas to develop the DC-3, which American Airlines started flying in 1936. With the DC-3, American began to brand itself using nautical terms, calling its aircraft "Flagships" and establishing the "Admirals Club," an honorary club for valued passengers. The DC-3s had a four-star "admiral's pennant" which would fly outside the cockpit window while the aircraft was parked, one of the most well-known images of the airline at the time.

American was the first airline to cooperate with Fiorello LaGuardia's plans to build an airport in New York City, and partly as a result became the owner of the world's first airline lounge at the new LaGuardia Airport (LGA), which became known as the "Admirals Club." Membership was initially by invitation only, but a discrimination suit decades later changed the club into a paid membership club, creating the model for other airline lounges.

Postwar developments

After World War II, American launched an international subsidiary, American Overseas Airlines to serve Europe; however, AOA was sold to rival Pan Am in 1950. AA launched another subsidiary around the same time, American Airlines de Mexico S.A., to operate flights to Mexico, and built several airports in American Airlines introduced the first transcontinental jet service on 25 January 1959. With the introduction of 707 "Astrojet" service in the 1960s, American's focus shifted to nonstop coast-to-coast flights, although it maintained feeder connections to other cities along its old route using smaller Convair 990s and Lockheed Electras. The company also launched the first electronic booking system, named Sabre, together with IBM.

Expansion in 1980s and 1990s

American changed its routing to a hub-and-spoke system starting in 1981, opening its first hubs at DFW and Chicago O'Hare. American began flights to Europe and Japan from these hubs in the mid-1980s.

In the late 1980s, American opened three new hubs for north-south traffic. San Jose International Airport was added as a hub after American purchased Air California. American also built a new terminal and runway at Raleigh-Durham International Airport to take advantage of the rapidly-growing Research Triangle Park nearby, as well as compete with USAir's hub in Charlotte. Nashville was also chosen as a hub.

Lower fuel prices in the era and a favorable management climate at the time led to higher than average airline industry profits that were not necessarily shared by non-stockholding employees. The industry's expansion was not lost on the American Airline's existing employees who on February 17, 1997 struck for higher wages. President Bill Clinton invoked the Taft-Hartley Amendment to the Wagner Act citing economic impact to the United States a few minutes later quashing the strike.* Pilots settled for substantially lower wage increases than their demands as a result.

The three new hubs were all abandoned in the 1990s: San Jose was sold to Reno Air, and RDU to Midway Airlines. Midway went out of business in 2001. American purchased Reno Air in February 1999 and fully integrated its operations on 31 August 1999, but did not resume hub operations in San Jose.

Miami also became a hub after American bought Central and South American routes from Eastern Air Lines in 1990. Through the 1990s, American expanded its route network in Latin America to become the dominant U.S. carrier in the region.

On 15 October 1998 American Airlines became the first airline to offer electronic ticketing in all 44 countries it serves.

TWA merger, 9/11, and aftermath

Crandall left the company in 1998 and was replaced by Donald J. Carty, who negotiated the purchase of Trans World Airlines and its hub in St. Louis in April 2001.

The merger of seniority lists was a contentious issue, particularly for pilots, who were represented by different unions at the two airlines. In the final merger, 60 percent of all former TWA pilots were moved to the bottom of the seniority list at AA: the most senior TWA captain, hired in 1963, was integrated at the same seniority level as an AA captain hired in 1985. However, the TWA pilots were given "super-seniority" and a specified ratio of positions as captain if they stayed in St. Louis. The result was that most former TWA pilots stayed in St. Louis and roughly maintained their same relative seniority. A few left St. Louis and flew in the co-pilot seat next to AA pilots with significantly less seniority. In addition, all former TWA flight attendants (approximately 4,200 employees) were furloughed by mid-2003 due to the flight attendants' union putting former TWA flight attendants at the bottom of their seniority list.

In the wake of the TWA merger and the roughly concurrent September 11, 2001 attacks (which claimed two of AA's aircraft), American began losing money. Carty negotiated new wage and benefit agreements with the airline's labor unions, but was forced to resign after union leaders discovered that Carty was planning to award handsome executive compensation packages at the same time. St. Louis' hub was also downsized afterwards.

In Carty's wake, American has undergone additional cost-cutting measures, including rolling back its "More Room in Coach" program (which eliminated several seats on certain aircraft types), ending three-class service on many international flights, and standardizing its fleet at each hub (see below). However, the airline has rebounded and expanded its service into new markets, including Ireland, India and China.

On July 20, 2005, for the first time in 17 quarters, American announced a quarterly profit; the airline earned $58 million in Q2 2005. American is reliant upon its dominant position at Dallas/Fort Worth for its continuing financial solvency. It had previously lobbied for the preservation of the Wright Amendment, which regulates Southwest Airlines' operations at Love Field in Dallas. On June 15, 2006, American reached an agreement with Southwest Airlines and the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth to seek repeal of the Wright Amendment on the conditions that Love Field remain a domestic airport and that its gate capacity be limited.

Codesharing agreements

American has codesharing agreements with Aer Lingus, Air Pacific, Air Sahara, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Eastern Airlines, Deutsche Bahn (AiRail Service), EVA Air, Finnair, Grupo TACA (to be discontinued soon), Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas Airways, SN Brussels Airlines, SNCF, Swiss International Air Lines (to be discontinued soon), TAM Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Vietnam Airlines. AmericanConnection, which feeds American's hub at Lambert Saint Louis International Airport, is also a codesharing operation with three regional carriers.

Although members of, for example, British Airways's Flying Club can earn AAdvantage miles for flights with American Airlines within the US, they cannot earn miles for transatlantic flights; the same applies in reverse to AAdvantage members who will not earn miles for US-UK flights with BA.

Destinations

American Airlines serves destinations on four continents. Its network is particularly developed in Latin America, where it serves more destinations than any other U.S. airline. It is the only U.S. airline with scheduled flights to Haiti and Bolivia.

In recent years, American has begun to expand its network in Asia. In 2005, American re-introduced a non-stop flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Osaka, which had been discontinued after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and began service from Chicago to Delhi. * In April 2006, American began service from Chicago to Shanghai.

American's domestic strategy is centered around its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth. In addition to its DFW hub, American also operates services at Love Field in competition with Southwest Airlines. American offers mainline flights from Love to St. Louis and Kansas City, as well as commuter flights to Austin and San Antonio.

  • it will upgrade its Miami-Buenos Aires routes to all Boeing 777 operations on September 2006 . It operates 2 evening departures from Miami, the first one with a Boeing 767-300, the second one with a Boeing 777-200. New York JFK-Buenos Aires route will get a Boeing 777 upgrade for the winter season from October 2006 through April 2007 while the Boeing 767-300 will continue to operate the current summer schedule and resume for the summer 2007 schedule.

Incidents and accidents

Fleet

As of April, 2006, American's fleet has an average age of 13.3 years *. Almost half of its fleet is comprised of McDonnell Douglas MD-82 and MD-83 series twinjets, referred to by AA as "Super 80," denoting the type's original name, "DC-9 Super 80." Much of the Super 80 fleet dates back to the early 1980s, although some were later acquired from TWA.

Regardless of age, most of AA's aircraft have been refitted with new interiors in the last few years, with the exception of many Boeing 757s. AA has also introduced new aircraft to its fleet: the newest are the Boeing 777-200ERs, which replaced MD-11s on key transoceanic routes in the late 1990s such as Tokyo Narita, and 737-800s, which replaced 727s on many domestic and Caribbean routes.

American has discontinued three-class service on most aircraft, but continues to offer business class on 777 and 767-200 aircraft. First class passengers on 777 routes to London and Frankfurt enjoy the "American Flagship Suite," a first class seat that can swivel inwards toward a personal work area and also recline 90 degrees to become a bed. 767-200 flights between JFK, SFO, and LAX offer three-class "American Flagship Service" which replicates the passenger service offered on long international flights. The business class cabins of American's 767-300 aircraft are in the process of being refitted with electronic "lie-flat" seats. When the installation is comlete, the seats will also be introduced on American's 777s.

On all American aircraft (except ex-TWA 757s), passengers in all cabins have a cigarette port DC power port at select seats. All classes of service on the 777 have personal video screens, although they lack Audio/Video On Demand (AVOD) systems. These personal video screens have a "GateConnect" feature which allows passengers to view terminal maps and connecting flight information for their destination airport.

Most recently, American has taken the unique step of redesigning its schedules so that each hub city receives certain aircraft types more often than others, which is intended to simplify maintenance and last-minute fleet substitutions. Chicago, DFW and St. Louis get most MD-80, 757-2Q8, and 757-231 service, Miami gets most 757-223 and 737 service, and JFK gets most A300 and 767-200ER service. 777 and 767-300ER aircraft are usually reserved for high density domestic markets and international flights.

American Airlines was one of three carriers (Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines being the other two) to sign an exclusivity agreement with Boeing in the late 1990s. When Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, the European Union forced Boeing to void the contracts. However, both parties have been adhering to and intend to adhere to the terms under a gentlemen's agreement.

Fleet types

Type Fleet Seats, layout Routes
Airbus A300
(600R) 		34 267 (16/251) High-density, medium-range trunk routes to the Caribbean and along the East Coast
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
(S80) 		266 136 (16/120) Domestic flights, predominantly east-west flights through DFW, Chicago and St. Louis
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
(S80) 		95 136 (16/120) Domestic flights, predominantly east-west flights through DFW, Chicago and St. Louis
Boeing 737
(823) 		77 142 (16/126) Domestic, Caribbean, Canadian destinations, and Latin American flights. Flights are predominantly operated from Dallas/Forth Worth and Miami.
Boeing 757
(2Q8/231/223) 		143 188 (22/166)
180 (22/158) 		Domestic, Caribbean, and Latin American flights; service from Boston to Manchester and Shannon, Canadian destinations.
Boeing 767
(323ER) 		58 213 (30/183) Medium-haul routes to Europe, Hawaii, and Latin America, premium transcontinental, some hub-to-hub ferrying flights
Boeing 767
(223ER) 		16 158 (9/30/119) Service from JFK to Bermuda, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco (Non -ER aircraft being phased out of service.)
Boeing 777
(223ER) 		46 224 (16/35/182)
245 (18/35/201) 		London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Osaka, Delhi, Shanghai, Brazil, Argentina, DFW-MIA, DFW-ORD,

Past fleet types

Livery

American's early liveries varied widely, but a common livery was adopted in the 1930s that featured a large eagle painted on the fuselage of each aircraft. The eagle became a widely-recognized symbol of the company and inspired the name of American Eagle Airlines. Propeller aircraft featured an international orange lightning bolt running down the length of the fuselage, which was replaced by a simpler orange stripe with the introduction of jets.

In the late 1960s, American commissioned an industrial designer to develop a new livery. The original design called for a red, white, and blue stripe on the fuselage, and a simple "AA" logo, without an eagle, on the tail. However, American's employees revolted when the livery was made public, and launched a "Save the Eagle" campaign similar to the "Save the Flying Red Horse" campaign at Mobil. Eventually, the designer caved in and created a highly stylized eagle, dubbed "the bug," which remains the company's logo to this day. In 1999, American painted a new Boeing 757 in its 1959 international orange livery.

American is the only major U.S. airline that leaves the majority of its aircraft surfaces unpainted. Originally, this was because C. R. Smith hated painted aircraft, and refused to use any liveries that involved painting the entire plane. Crandall later justified the distinctive natural metal finish by noting that less paint reduced the aircraft's weight, thus saving on fuel costs. Eastern Air Lines and US Airways have also maintained unpainted airplanes in the past.

Miscellaneous

  • In the 1960s, Mattel released a series of American Airlines stewardess Barbie dolls.
  • An "American Airlines Space Freighter," the Valley Forge, was the setting for the 1971 science fiction movie Silent Running, starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumbull. The freighter featured the then-new "AA" logo on the hull.
  • On 30 Mar 1973 became the first major airline to employ a female pilot when Bonnie Tiburzi was hired to fly Boeing 727s.
  • AA was featured prominently in the first two Home Alone movies.
  • In the early 1990s, singer Janet Jackson made a commercial for AA.
  • AA has been a long-time promotional sponsor of The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from AA's hub city of Chicago.
  • AA is one of the few companies to have purchased naming rights for two sporting venues: the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami and the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The 2006 NBA Finals saw the Miami Heat taking on the Dallas Mavericks, creating great exposure for American Airlines. Miami Heat eventually won the championship, winning the series 4-2.
  • AA was the first airline to offer Bloody Mary cocktails on its aircraft. The airline's contract with the garage-based makers of "Mr. and Mrs. T" mix eventually exhausted the small factory's supply and forced Mr. and Mrs. T to sell itself to Del Monte.
  • American received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002 and has maintained their rating in respect to policies on LGBT employees.
  • Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie of Vermont made a career being a pilot for American Airlines.
  • AA's in-flight magazine is titled American Way
  • American Airlines is the first airline to develop a frequent flyer program, dubbed AAdvantage and created on May 1, 1981. It remains the largest and most diverse airline loyalty program in the world and maintains an active membership of over 50 million members.

References

Vignelli Associates designed the AA with eagle logo in 1967. Vignelli attributes the introduction of his firm to American Airlines to Henry Dreyfuss, the legendary AA design consultant. Logo, as it was originally designed, is still in use today.

Sources

  • John M. Capozzi, A Spirit of Greatness (JMC, 2001), ISBN 0965641031
  • Don Bedwell, Silverbird: The American Airlines Story (Airways, 1999), ISBN 0965399362
  • Al Casey, Casey's Law (Arcade, 1997), ISBN 1559703075
  • Simon Forty, ABC American Airlines (Ian Allan, 1997), ISBN 1882663217
  • Dan Reed, The American Eagle: The Ascent of Bob Crandall and American Airlines (St. Martin's, 1993), ISBN 0312086962
  • Robert J. Serling, Eagle (St. Martin's, 1985), ISBN 0312224532
  • International Directory of Company Histories, St. James Press.

External links

Airlines of the United States | American Airlines | Asia Miles | Companies based in Texas | Dallas-Fort Worth Texas based companies | Fort Worth, Texas

American Airlines | American Airlines | American Airlines | 아메리칸 항공 | American Airlines | American Airlines | アメリカン航空 | American Airlines | American Airlines | American Airlines | American Airlines | American Airlines | 美国航空

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "American Airlines".

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