American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc., the principal subsidiary of AMR Corporation (AMR), was founded in 1934. All of American's common stock is owned by AMR. At the end of 2008, American provided scheduled jet service to approximately 150 destinations throughout North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
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On the morning of April 15, 1926, a young aviator named Charles A. Lindbergh stowed a bag of mail in his little DH-4 biplane and took off from Chicago for St. Louis. Later that day, he and two other pilots flew three plane loads of mail from St. Louis to Chicago.
At the time, Lindbergh was chief pilot of Robertson Aircraft Corporation of Missouri, which was the second aviation company to hold a U.S. airmail contract. It was one of scores of companies that eventually consolidated to form the modern-day American Airlines.
The consolidation began in 1929, when The Aviation Corporation was formed to acquire young aviation companies, including Robertson. In 1930, The Aviation Corporation's airline subsidiaries were incorporated into American Airways, Inc. In 1934, American Airways became American Airlines, Inc.
On May 13, 1934, Cyrus Rowlett Smith became president of American. Except for a period during World War II, "Mr. C.R." continued as chief executive officer until 1968, when he was named U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
On June 25, 1936, American was the first airline to fly the Douglas DC-3 in commercial service. By the end of the decade, American was the nation's number one domestic air carrier in terms of revenue passenger miles. On Feb. 16, 1937, American carried its one-millionth passenger.
American Airlines began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 10, 1939.
In 1992, American introduced Value Pricing. The plan was designed to make fares simple, sensible and fair. It offered customers substantially greater travel flexibility, and was a major revision to American's fare structure. Intense price competition made the Value Plan unfeasible, however, and American was forced to abandon it.
In 2006, American celebrated the 25 th anniversary of its AAdvantage program – the world’s first frequent flyer program that revolutionized the airline industry and set the standard for similar initiatives in many other businesses. AAdvantage began with 300,000 members. Today, it has more than 50 million members.
During September 2008, the American Airlines Cargo Division played a key role in bringing an extraordinary exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs, from London to the U.S. for an extended engagement at the Dallas Museum of Art. AA Cargo was entrusted with shipping more than 130 priceless artifacts.
On Jan. 16, 2009, American announced that it had implemented an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) in conjunction with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and the Federal Aviation Administration. The safety partnership encourages flight attendants to voluntarily report safety-related information. AA’s program is the largest ASAP in the world.
In January, 2009, American Airlines and NBC Universal announced that they had reached an agreement for inflight broadcast content starting on March 1, 2009.
In February, 2009, American announced that its popular "Search by Price & Schedule" option on the AA.com Web site is now available in Spanish on AA.com en Español.
On Feb. 3, 2009, American opened a new Admirals Club lounge at Washington Dulles International Airport as the last stage of AA’s relocation into Terminal B at Dulles.
In February, 2009, American enhanced its "Remember Me" speech-recognition technology, making it more convenient than ever for customers who call to get departure gate, flight times and other information about upcoming trips.
In February, 2009, the oneworld global alliance that includes American Airlines as a founding member marked its 10 th anniversary.
In addition, American has capacity purchase agreements with two wholly-owned subsidiaries of AMR, American Eagle Airlines, Inc. and Executive Airlines, Inc. (collectively, AMR Eagle or the AMR Eagle carriers), and two independently owned regional airlines, which do business as the "AmericanConnection" (the AmericanConnection® carriers). The AMR Eagle and AmericanConnection® carriers provide connecting service from eight of American's high-traffic cities to smaller markets throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
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