AMR Corporation, American Airlines' parent, reported a net loss of $359 million for the third quarter of 2009. The results include the impact of approximately $94 million in non-recurring charges related to the sale of aircraft and the grounding of leased Airbus A300 aircraft prior to lease expiration. Excluding those non-recurring charges, the third quarter 2009 loss was $265 million, AMR said.
While the weak economy and resulting impact on travel demand overwhelmed the benefit of lower fuel prices in the third quarter, AMR said that its actions in the past several months to strengthen its liquidity, network and fleet will better position it to meet its near-term challenges and achieve long-term success, AMR said.
"A difficult revenue environment driven by the weakened global economy continues to overwhelm the benefit of significantly lower fuel prices, but our third quarter accomplishments better position us to address these near-term challenges and be competitive and successful for the long haul," said AMR Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey. "We believe the strong vote of confidence we received from our strategic partners and investors reflects our long track record of meeting our obligations and belief in our ability to address the many challenges our industry faces. But we must remain focused on returning to profitability, since profits are the only way to secure our long-term future. I want to thank our employees for their efforts during a tough period and am confident they will continue to rise to meet the challenges ahead.”
Arpey reiterated expectations that American and four of its fellow oneworld members - British Airways, Iberia, Royal Jordanian and Finnair - will receive DOT approval of their application for global antitrust immunity, and the companies look forward to continuing to demonstrate the public benefits of their plans to regulators in the European Union. With regulatory approval, American, British Airways and Iberia plan to launch a joint business relationship that will improve travel options and customer benefits on flights between North America and Europe.
AMR reported third quarter consolidated revenues of approximately $5.1 billion, a decrease of more than 20 percent year over year, largely driven by reduced capacity and the reduced demand for air travel and cargo resulting from the global economic downturn. Visit www.aa.com