Regional Affiliates Undertaking Numerous Initiatives Designed to Minimize Impact on Customers and Employees

FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines today announced that its regional affiliates, American Eagle and American Connection, are undertaking numerous initiatives to reduce the number of available seat miles (ASMs) they fly. These steps are required to enable American to honor its contract with the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which limits the number of ASMs flown by American’s regional affiliates while APA members are on furlough.

American Eagle’s president, Peter Bowler, outlined in a letter to employees the steps that carrier is taking to reduce ASMs. These include:

Soon removing some seats from Saab and ATR aircraft. By taking these seats out of these planes, Eagle can reduce ASMs without any impact to employees or routes.

Accelerating jet-for-prop replacements on some routes earlier than planned.

Reducing frequencies (the number of trips per day) on routes across the system. These frequency cancellations will be phased in starting in April.

Withdrawing from seven routes on April 7: Dallas/Fort Worth to Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas; Dallas/Fort Worth to Lafayette, La.; Chicago to Baton Rouge, La.; New York JFK to Cleveland; New York JFK to Syracuse, N.Y.; Boston to Albany, N.Y.; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Barahona, Dominican Republic. These routes are Eagle’s weakest financial performers.

Closing two American Eagle stations - Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas, and Lafayette, La. - on April 6 as a result of the route cancellations.

Together with actions taken by the American Connection carriers serving American’s new St. Louis hub, these initiatives will bring the airlines in compliance with the ASM cap through the end of June without further station or route closings.

Bowler stated that American Eagle remains committed to its primary mission of feeding traffic to American Airlines flights, which is especially critical as American tries to rebuild following the airline industry’s severe downturn.

However, Bowler stated that additional ASM-cutting initiatives would be required as American Eagle continues to take delivery of approximately three new regional jets per month and would again bump up against the cap in July.

Among the options that American Eagle is evaluating are a number of potential alternatives involving the carrier’s Miami operations and Executive Airlines, which flies as American Eagle in the Caribbean but under a separate operating certificate. The options range from changing the codeshare agreement with American all the way to the potential sale of some or all of these aspects of Eagle.

No final decisions have been made, and the carrier continues to explore all available avenues to allow American to honor its contractual commitment to the APA .

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