Business trends The key trends for American Airlines are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):
Ownership and structure American Airlines, Inc., is publicly traded through its parent company,
American Airlines Group Inc., under NASDAQ: AAL , with a market capitalization of about $11 billion as of 2024. In September 2024, it was removed from the
S&P 500 index and placed into the
S&P MidCap 400 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. The campus is located on 300 acres, adjacent to
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, American's
fortress hub. 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 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. American moved to two leased office buildings in
Grand Prairie, Texas. On January 17, 1983, the airline finished moving into a $150 million ($ when adjusted for inflation), facility in Fort Worth; $147 million (about $ 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. In 2015, American announced it would build a new headquarters in Fort Worth. Groundbreaking began in the spring of 2016, and occupancy was completed in September 2019. The airline plans to house 5,000 new workers in the building. The initial logo contained large red letters on either side of the eagle, enclosed in a double red and white circle against a blue background. The logo was modified for the first time in 1946, eliminating the red and white circles and making the eagle more prominent. The corporate name was standardized in a sans-serif font in italic capital letters. According to Vignelli, the approach was "not styling but reductionist based on the notion of timelessness." 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. 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, 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. 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.
Aircraft livery American's early
liveries varied widely, but a standard livery was adopted in the 1930s, featuring an
eagle painted on the fuselage. 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. 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. in May 2012 On January 17, 2013, American unveiled a new livery. 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 fuel costs. 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". 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. Doug Parker, the incoming CEO, indicated that the new livery could be short-lived, stating that "[the] only reason this is an issue now is that they just did it right in the middle [of the merger], which kind of makes it confusing, so that allows us, actually, to decide if we are going to do something different because we have so many airplanes to paint". 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", and
AskThePilot.com author Patrick Smith describing the logo as a linoleum knife poking through a shower curtain'. Later in January 2013,
Bloomberg asked the designer of the 1968 American Airlines logo (
Massimo Vignelli) on his opinion over the rebranding. Vignelli replied "now they have something other than
Helvetica that's not as good or as powerful", adding that "it has no sense of permanence". in June 2013 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. 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. As of September 2019, American has heritage aircraft for
Piedmont,
PSA,
America West,
US Airways,
Reno Air,
TWA,
Allegheny, and
AirCal in their fleet. They also have two AA branded heritage
737-800 aircraft, an AstroJet N905NN, and the polished aluminum livery used from 1967 to 2013, N921NN.
Leadership Chairman: Greg Smith (since April 2023) Chief Executive Officer:
Robert Isom (since March 2022)
Previous CEOs •
C. R. Smith (1934–1968 and 1973–1974) •
George A. Spater (1968–1973) •
Albert V. Casey (1974–1985) •
Robert Crandall (1985–1998) •
Donald J. Carty (1998–2003) •
Gerard Arpey (2003–2011) •
Thomas W. Horton (2011–2013) •
Doug Parker (2013–2022)
Customer service 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.
Worker relations 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). However the majority of American Eagle pilots are ALPA members. • The
Association of Professional Flight Attendants represents American Airlines flight attendants, including former USAirways flight attendants. • 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. • 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. • American's customer service and gate employees belong to the
Communications Workers of America/
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Passenger Service Association. • PAFCA-AAL represents the nearly 550 FAA-certificated
Aircraft Dispatchers and Operations Specialists at American Airlines. This specialized group, many of whom are licensed pilots, former Air Traffic Control personnel, and military airmen share equal responsibility with the Pilot-in-Command for the safe conduct of each the flight. In September 2024, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants ratified a five-year contract that included immediate wage increases of up to 20.5% and $514 million in retroactive pay, the first contract to include boarding pay for a unionized cabin crew in the United States. In January 2025, the TWU-IAM alliance reached a two-year contract extension covering approximately 34,000 ground workers, with raises of 18 to 26 percent. On February 9, 2026, the APFA board of directors issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in CEO Robert Isom, the first such action in the union's history.
Subsidiary companies Sky Chefs In 1942, American Airlines established
Sky Chefs, a wholly owned subsidiary, as a catering company to serve their fleet. In 1986, Sky Chefs was sold to
Toronto-based
Onex Capital Corporation for $170 million. Sky Chefs became a subsidiary of Onex Food Services Inc. Since 2001, it has been fully owned by the
LSG Group.
Flagship Hotels / Americana Hotels In the late-1960s, American Airlines established the Flagship Hotels chain as a subsidiary of Sky Chefs. On July 21, 1972, American Airlines leased four hotels from the
Loews Corporation, three of them branded as Americana Hotels, for a period of thirty years. American merged the hotels with their Flagship Hotels, and rebranded the entire chain as Americana Hotels. In 1980, American Airlines sold Americana Hotels to
Bass Brothers Enterprises of Fort Worth, Texas. == Controversies and conflicts ==