American Airlines Continues to Bolster Global Network Along With oneworld Partners

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Airlines continues to take important strides to strengthen its global network through its oneworld® alliance partnerships. In recent days, American has achieved key milestones with its oneworld partners towards enhancing competition and customer benefits in the trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific markets, helping to ensure that oneworld remains the premier global airline alliance.

"As a founding member of oneworld in 1999, we recognized the importance of having a strong global network - not only to take customers anywhere they wanted to go but to enhance American's competitive position worldwide," said Gerard Arpey, Chairman and CEO of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines. "Today, we continue to make progress in support of those goals as we strengthen our oneworld ties with partners in Europe and Asia to complement our leading position in Latin America.  Our stronger global reach will benefit our customers, employees and shareholders and will help ensure oneworld remains the preeminent global alliance with members unmatched in brand and service quality."

As it strengthens it presence in Asia through closer ties to fellow oneworld partner Japan Airlines (JAL), on Feb. 16 American applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate year-round scheduled service to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) starting Oct. 1, 2010.  American proposes to fly to Haneda, the city's closest airport to downtown Tokyo, from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), which are the two largest markets between the U.S. mainland and Tokyo. JAL has extensive operations at Haneda, which is expected to provide additional connection options for customers in the future as the airport's operating window expands.

American and JAL plan to provide even more seamless connections and routing choices for customers in the North America-Asia market as a result of their application for antitrust immunity, which they filed with DOT on Feb. 12. American and JAL asked DOT for antitrust immunity to forge a closer relationship and operate a joint business on flights between North America and Asia. The airlines also will notify the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan of the transaction.

Customers in the trans-Pacific market will benefit from the strengthened relationship between American and JAL.  By more closely integrating their networks, the airlines will be able to improve efficiency, find opportunities to lower costs and have greater ability to invest in products, services and fleets. By working together to provide more seamless links for connecting passengers, the airlines can expand customer choice by offering new routes and supporting existing routes that would not be economically viable for the airlines individually.

Meanwhile, American's and oneworld's efforts to strengthen the alliance's trans-Atlantic presence grew a step closer to reality on Feb. 13. That's when DOT tentatively approved an application for antitrust immunity by American and oneworld partners British Airways, Iberia, Royal Jordanian and Finnair, as well as plans to operate a joint business between North America and Europe by American, British Airways and Iberia.

With antitrust immunity, the three airlines can cooperate more closely to deliver enhanced service and travel options for customers. Separately, they will also share revenue on flights within the joint business.

In making its decision, DOT said that granting antitrust immunity to oneworld would provide travelers and shippers with a variety of benefits, including lower fares on more routes, increased services, better schedules and reduced travel and connection times. DOT also said the proposed alliance would enhance competition with the other airline alliances, which already enjoy broad antitrust immunity.

The carriers will review the DOT's proposed conditions and respond during the comment period preceding a final order. In addition, American, British Airways and Iberia continue to discuss the benefits of their plans with regulators in the European Union.

"In October 2009, American unveiled FlightPlan 2020 as a roadmap to our successful future, and one of the key tenets of that plan is to strengthen and defend our global network," Arpey added. "The strategy we unveiled last year to bolster our domestic network in the cornerstone markets of Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles - all critical international gateways - will certainly complement our efforts to enhance our global reach and service, both on our network and the networks of our oneworld partners. We will continue to take to take steps to ensure that our network remains a strong foundation of a successful future."

About American Airlines

American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection® serve 250 cities in 40 countries with, on average, more than 3,400 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning Web site, AA.com®, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve nearly 700 destinations in more than 130 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, We know why you fly and AAdvantage are registered trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR)

About oneworld:

oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Russia's S7 Airlines will join the alliance in 2010. Between them, these airlines:

• Serve almost 750 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 8,500 daily departures.
• Offer nearly 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
• Carry some 330 million passengers a year.
• Employ 300,000 people.
• Operate almost 2,500 aircraft.
• Generate some US$100 billion annual revenues in total.

The alliance enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.  oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors. oneworld was voted the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the seventh year running in the latest (2009) World Travel Awards.

AmericanAirlines®  We know why you fly®

Current AMR Corp. releases can be accessed on the Internet.

The address is http://www.aa.com

SOURCE American Airlines