American Airlines

As of July 2022, American Airlines flies to 269 domestic destinations and 81 international destinations in 58 countries (as of August 2022) in five continents.[21]

American operates its largest hub at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

American currently operates ten hubs.[22]

• Charlotte – American's hub for the southeastern United States and secondary Caribbean gateway. Its operations in Concourse E are the largest regional flight operation in the world.[23] American has about 91% of the market share at CLT, making it the largest carrier at the airport.[23] It is a former US Airways hub.
• Chicago–O'Hare – American's hub for the Midwest.[24] American has about 35% of the market share at O'Hare, making it the airport's second largest airline after United.[24]
• Dallas/Fort Worth – American's hub for the southern United States and largest hub overall.[25] American currently has about 87% of the market share at DFW, making it the largest carrier at the airport.[25] American's corporate headquarters are also in Fort Worth near the airport.[25] DFW serves as American's primary Transpacific hub, primary gateway to Mexico and its secondary gateway to Latin America.[25]
• Los Angeles – American's hub for the West Coast and secondary transpacific gateway.[26] Though American has increasingly reduced its network out of Los Angeles, citing many long-haul international routes as unprofitable, it still maintains a handful of transatlantic and transpacific flights.[27]
• Miami – American's primary Latin American and Caribbean hub.[28] American has about 68% of the market share in Miami, making it the largest airline at the airport.[28]
• New York–JFK – American's primary transatlantic hub,[29] while including other select flights to South America and Asia. Mostly serves destinations with a lot of business traffic.[30] American has about 12% of the market share at JFK, making it the third largest carrier at the airport behind Delta and JetBlue.[30]
• New York–LaGuardia – American's second New York hub.[31]
• Philadelphia – American's primary Northeast domestic hub and secondary transatlantic hub, primarily for London, Paris, and leisure destinations in Western and Southern Europe.[32] American has about 70% of the market share at PHL, making it the airport's largest airline. Another former US Airways hub.[32]
• Phoenix–Sky Harbor – American's Rocky Mountain hub.[33] Currently American has about 33% of the market share at PHX, making it the airport's second-largest airline. Former US Airways hub.[34]
• Washington–Reagan – American's hub for the capital of the United States. American has about 49% of the market share at DCA, making it the largest carrier at the airport. Former US Airways hub.[35]

American Airlines is a member of the Oneworld alliance and has codeshares with the following airlines:[36]

In addition to the above codeshares, American Airlines has entered into joint ventures[46] with the following airlines:

• British Airways
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines[47]
• Qantas[48]

AAdvantage is the frequent flyer program for American Airlines. It was launched on May 1, 1981, and it remains the largest frequent flyer program with over 115 million members as of 2021.[71] Miles accumulated in the program allow members to redeem tickets, upgrade service class, or obtain free or discounted car rentals, hotel stays, merchandise, or other products and services through partners. The most active members, based on the accumulation of Loyalty Points with American Airlines, are designated AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum Pro, and AAdvantage Executive Platinum elite members, with privileges such as separate check-in, priority upgrade, and standby processing, or free upgrades. AAdvantage status correspond with Oneworld status levels allowing elites to receive reciprocal benefits from American's oneworld partner airlines.[72]

AAdvantage co-branded credit cards are also available and offer other benefits. The cards are issued by CitiCards, a subsidiary of Citigroup, Barclaycard, and Bilt card in the United States,[73] by several banks including Butterfield Bank and Scotiabank in the Caribbean,[74][75] and by Banco Santander in Brazil.[76]

AAdvantage allows one-way redemption, starting at 7,500 miles.[77]

The Admirals Club was conceived by AA president C.R. Smith as a marketing promotion shortly after he was made an honorary Texas Ranger. Inspired by the Kentucky colonels and other honorary title designations, Smith decided to make particularly valued passengers "admirals" of the "Flagship fleet" (AA called its aircraft "Flagships" at the time).[78] The list of admirals included many celebrities, politicians, and other VIPs, as well as more "ordinary" customers who had been particularly loyal to the airline.

There was no physical Admirals Club until shortly after the opening of LaGuardia Airport. During the airport's construction, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had an upper-level lounge set aside for press conferences and business meetings. At one such press conference, he noted that the entire terminal was being offered for lease to airline tenants; after a reporter asked whether the lounge would be leased as well, LaGuardia replied that it would, and a vice president of AA immediately offered to lease the premises. The airline then procured a liquor license and began operating the lounge as the "Admirals Club" in 1939.[79]

The second Admirals Club opened at Washington National Airport. Because it was illegal to sell alcohol in Virginia at the time, the club contained refrigerators for the use of its members, so they could store their liquor at the airport. For many years, membership in the Admirals Club (and most other airline lounges) was by the airline's invitation. After a passenger sued for discrimination,[80] the club switched to a paid membership program in 1974.[81][82]

Though affiliated with the Admirals Club and staffed by many of the same employees, the Flagship Lounge is a separate lounge specifically designed for customers flying in first class and business class on international flights and transcontinental domestic flights.[83]

The key trends for American Airlines are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):

American Airlines, Inc., is publicly traded through its parent company, American Airlines Group Inc., under NASDAQ: AAL Nasdaq: AAL, with a market capitalization of about $12 billion as of 2019, and is included in the S&P 500 index.[8]

American Eagle is a network of six regional carriers that operate under a codeshare and service agreement with American, operating flights to destinations in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Three of these carriers are independent and three are subsidiaries of American Airlines Group: Envoy Air Inc., Piedmont Airlines, Inc., and PSA Airlines Inc.[8]

Image of the signs of the former headquarters

American Airlines is headquartered across several buildings in Fort Worth, Texas that it calls the "Robert L. Crandall Campus" in honor of former president and CEO Robert Crandall. The 1,700,000-square-foot (160,000 m²) square-foot, five-building office complex called was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.[92] The campus is located on 300 acres, adjacent to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, American's fortress hub.[93]

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.[94][95] In 1979, American moved its headquarters to a site at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which affected up to 1,300 jobs. Mayor of New York City Ed Koch described the move as a "betrayal" of New York City.[96] American moved to two leased office buildings in Grand Prairie, Texas.[97] On January 17, 1983, the airline finished moving into a $150 million ($441,000,000 when adjusted for inflation), 550,000-square-foot (51,000 m²) facility in Fort Worth; $147 million (about $432,000,000 when adjusted for inflation) in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bonds financed the headquarters. The airline began leasing the facility from the airport, which owns the facility.[97] Following the merger of US Airways and American Airlines, the new company consolidated its corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, abandoning the US Airways headquarters in Phoenix, AZ.

As of 2015, American Airlines is the corporation with the largest presence in Fort Worth.[98]

In 2015, American announced that it would build a new headquarters in Fort Worth. Groundbreaking began in the spring of 2016 and occupancy completed in September 2019.[99] The airline plans to house 5,000 new workers in the building.[98]

It will be located on a 41-acre (17 ha) property adjacent to the airline's flight academy and conference and training center, west of Texas State Highway 360, 2 miles (3.2 km)[99] west from the current headquarters. The airline will lease a total of 300 acres (120 ha) from Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport and this area will include the headquarters.[98] Construction of the new headquarters began after the demolition of the Sabre facility, previously on the site.[99]

The airline considered developing a new headquarters in Irving, Texas, on the old Texas Stadium site, before deciding to keep the headquarters in Fort Worth.[98]

In 1931, Goodrich Murphy, an American employee, designed the AA logo as an entry in a logo contest. The eagle in the logo was copied from a Scottish hotel brochure.[100] The logo was redesigned by Massimo Vignelli in 1967.[101][102] Thirty years later, in 1997, American Airlines was able to make its logo Internet-compatible by buying the domain AA.com. AA is also American's two-letter IATA airline designator.[103]

On January 17, 2013, American launched a new rebranding and marketing campaign with FutureBrand dubbed, "A New American". This included a new logo, which includes elements of the 1967 logo.[104]

American Airlines faced difficulty obtaining copyright registration for their 2013 logo. On June 3, 2016, American Airlines sought to register it with the United States Copyright Office,[105] but in October of that year, the Copyright Office ruled that the logo was ineligible for copyright protection, as it did not pass the threshold of originality, and was thus in the public domain.[105] American requested that the Copyright Office reconsider, but on January 8, 2018, the Copyright Office affirmed its initial determination.[105][106] After American Airlines submitted additional materials, the Copyright Office reversed its decision on December 7, 2018, and ruled that the logo contained enough creativity to merit copyright protection.[107]

American's early liveries varied widely, but a common livery was adopted in the 1930s, featuring an eagle painted on the fuselage.[108] The eagle became a 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.[109]

In the late 1960s, American commissioned designer Massimo Vignelli 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; instead, Vignelli created a highly stylized eagle, which remained the company's logo until January 16, 2013.[110]

American's previous livery on an MD-83

On January 17, 2013, American unveiled a new livery.[111] Before then, American had been the only major U.S. airline to leave most of its aircraft surfaces unpainted. This was because C. R. Smith would not say he liked painted aircraft and refused to use any liveries that involved painting the entire plane. Robert "Bob" Crandall later justified the distinctive natural metal finish by noting that less paint reduced the aircraft's weight, thus saving on fuel costs.[112]

In January 2013, American launched a new rebranding and marketing campaign dubbed, "The New American". In addition to a new logo, American Airlines introduced a new livery for its fleet. The airline calls the new livery and branding "a clean and modern update".[113] The current design features an abstract American flag on the tail, along with a silver-painted fuselage, as a throw-back to the old livery. The new design was painted by Leading Edge Aviation Services in California.[114] Doug Parker, the incoming CEO indicated that the new livery could be short-lived, stating that "maybe we need to do something slightly different than [sic] that ... The only reason this is an issue now is that they just did it right in the middle, which kind of makes it confusing, so that gives us an opportunity, actually, to decide if we are going to do something different because we have so many airplanes to paint".[115] The current logo and livery have had mixed criticism, with Design Shack editor Joshua Johnson writing that they "boldly and proudly communicate the concepts of American pride and freedom wrapped into a shape that instantly makes you think about an airplane",[116] and AskThePilot.com author Patrick Smith describing the logo as 'a linoleum knife poking through a shower curtain'.[117] Later in January 2013, Bloomberg asked the designer of the 1968 American Airlines logo (Massimo Vignelli) on his opinion over the rebranding.[118]

In the end, American let their employees decide the new livery's fate. On an internal website for employees, American posted two options, one the new livery and one a modified version of the old livery. All of the American Airlines Group employees (including US Airways and other affiliates) were able to vote.[119] American ultimately decided to keep the new look. Parker announced that American would keep a US Airways and America West heritage aircraft in the fleet, with plans to add a heritage TWA aircraft and a heritage American plane with the old livery.[120] As of September 2019, American has heritage aircraft for Piedmont, PSA, America West, US Airways, Reno Air, TWA, and AirCal in their fleet.[121] They also have two AA branded heritage 737-800 aircraft, an AstroJet N905NN,[122] and the polished aluminum livery used from 1967 to 2013, N921NN.[123]

American, both before and after the merger with US Airways, has consistently performed poorly in rankings. The Wall Street Journal's annual airline rankings have ranked American as the worst or second-worst U.S. carrier for ten of the past twelve years, and in the bottom three of U.S. Airlines for at least the past twelve years. The airline has persistently performed poorly in the areas of losing checked luggage and bumping passengers due to oversold flights.[124]

The main representatives of key groups of employees are:

• The Allied Pilots Association is an in-house union which represents the nearly 15,000 American Airlines pilots; it was created in 1963 after the pilots left the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).[125] However the majority of American Eagle pilots are ALPA members.[126]
• The Association of Professional Flight Attendants represents American Airlines flight attendants, including former USAirways flight attendants.[127]
• Flight attendants at wholly owned regional carriers (Envoy, Piedmont, and PSA) are all represented by Association of Flight Attendants – Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA). US Airways flight attendants were active members of AFA-CWA before the merger, and they are honorary lifetime members. AFA-CWA is the largest flight attendant union in the industry.[128]
• The Transport Workers Union-International Association of Machinists alliance (TWU-IAM) represents the majority of American Airlines employed fleet service agents, mechanics, and other ground workers.[129]
• American's customer service and gate employees belong to the Communications Workers of America/International Brotherhood of Teamsters Passenger Service Association.[130]

Between October 1993 to July 1998, American Airlines was repeatedly cited for using high-sulfur fuel in motor vehicles at 10 major airports around the country, a violation of the Clean Air Act.[131]

Since 1981, as a means of creating revenue in a period of loss-making, American Airlines had offered a lifetime pass of unlimited travel, for the initial cost of $250,000.[132] This entitled the pass holder to fly anywhere in the world. Twenty-eight were sold. However, after some time, the airline realized they were making losses on the tickets, with the ticketholders costing them up to $1 million each. Ticketholders were booking large numbers of flights with some ticketholders flying interstate for lunch or flying to London multiple times a month. AA raised the cost of the lifetime pass to $3 million, and then finally stopped offering it in 2003. AA then used litigation to cancel two of the lifetime offers, saying the passes "had been terminated due to fraudulent activity".[133]

• In 1988, on American Airlines Flight 132's approach into Nashville, flight attendants notified the cockpit that there was smoke in the cabin. The flight crew in the cockpit ignored the warning, as on a prior flight, a fume event had occurred due to a problem with the auxiliary power unit. However, the smoke on Flight 132 was caused by improperly packaged hazardous materials. According to the NTSB inquiry, the cockpit crew persistently refused to acknowledge that there was a serious threat to the aircraft or the passengers, even after they were told that the floor was becoming soft and passengers had to be reseated. As a result, the aircraft was not evacuated immediately on landing, exposing the crew and passengers to the threat of smoke and fire longer than necessary.[134][135]
• On April 11, 2007, toxic smoke and oil fumes leaked into the aircraft cabin as American Airlines Flight 843 taxied to the gate. A flight attendant who was present in the cabin subsequently filed a lawsuit against Boeing, stating that she was diagnosed with neurotoxic disorder due to her exposure to the fumes, which caused her to experience memory loss, tremors, and severe headaches. She settled with the company in 2011.[136]
• In 2009, Mike Holland, deputy chairman for radiation and environmental issues at the Allied Pilots Association and an American Airlines pilot, said that the pilot union had started alerting pilots of the danger of contaminated bleed air, including contacting crew members that the union thinks were exposed to contamination based on maintenance records and pilot logs.[137]
• In a January 2017 incident on American Airlines Flight 1896, seven flight attendants were hospitalized after a strange odor was detected in the cabin. The Airbus A330 involved subsequently underwent a "thorough maintenance inspection", having been involved in three fume events in three months.[138][139]
• In August 2018, American Airlines flight attendants picketed in front of the Fort Worth company headquarters over a change in sick day policy, complaining that exposure to ill passengers, toxic uniforms, toxic cabin air, radiation exposure, and other issues were causing them to be sick.[140][141]
• In January 2019, two pilots and three flight attendants on Flight 1897 from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale were hospitalized following complaints of a strange odor.[142][143]

On October 24, 2017, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for American Airlines urging African Americans to "exercise caution" when traveling with the airline. The NAACP issued the advisory after four incidents. In one incident, a black woman was moved from first class to coach while her white traveling companion was allowed to remain in first class. In another incident, a black man was forced to give up his seats after being confronted by two unruly white passengers.[144] According to the NAACP, while they did receive complaints on other airlines, most of their complaints in the year before their advisory were on American Airlines.[145] In July 2018, the NAACP lifted their travel advisory saying that American has made improvements to mitigate discrimination and unsafe treatment of African Americans.[146]