It's been one year since Fort Worth-based American Airlines, and parent company AMR, filed for bankruptcy and leaders with the airline say the company's future is bright.
However, while much has been done to emerge from bankruptcy a stronger company, including new collective bargaining agreements with most of their unions, the airline is still mired in contract idsputes with the Allied Pilots Union.
A tentative agreement was recently reached, but the agreement still hinges on pilots voting to approve the deal.
Results of that vote will be made public Dec. 7.
AA released the following statement on the anniversary date Thursday:
“Since entering restructuring, American Airlines has made a significant amount of progress toward rebuilding one of the world’s greatest airlines. The vast majority of the work needed on the financial restructuring of the company is complete, including restructuring debt and leases, grounding older planes, improving our vendor and supplier relationships; we have ratified labor agreements with nearly all of our work groups; we have reduced the size of our management team and trimmed our headcount at our headquarters; but we’re also taking delivery of new aircraft that is modernizing our fleet and making it more fuel efficient and less costly to operate while still improving the onboard experience for our customers. And we have been executing on our network strategy plan that focuses on regions where demand is expected to grow and reducing in areas that are not profitable. We’re leveraging our joint business strengths in key global business markets and building on areas where we have a leading position.
“We set a goal of achieving about $3 billion in financial improvement by 2017. While we have had to make difficult decisions, endure a lot of challenges and have more work yet to do, we are nonetheless pleased with the results so far. This year we led our peers in unit revenue growth for six months in a row and have had two quarters where we earned a net profit, excluding reorganization and special items. Our future is bright, with the best team in the industry standing tall and working each and every day to put our customers at the center of everything we do. We are well on our way to building a new American Airlines,” said Michael Trevino, American Airlines spokesman
Meanwhile, 10,000 passenger service agents will begin voting next week on whether to join the Communications Workers of America union. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the airline's appeal of a ruling upholding the election. Voting is expected to start Dec. 4 and end Jan. 15.
