FORT WORTH, Texas - In yet another move to cut costs, improve efficiency and eliminate overhead expense, American Airlines today announced changes at its Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters that will consolidate an estimated 5,000 management and support staff from 11 buildings to two by early 2005.

“Early in 2001, at the first signs of an economic downturn, we began examining all the ways we could reduce our overhead structure. This consolidation is now made possible as a consequence of a considerable amount of reengineering and downsizing of our headquarters and management staffing, which company-wide is down about 17 percent from early 2001,” said Don Carty, chairman and chief executive officer.

“Once completed, these moves will save us another $6 million annually in facility costs, permanently reducing our overhead expense and increasing efficiency.”

In addition, as part of the facility consolidation, American this week netted more than $10 million from the sale of its Centerport 2 building.

Most of the facilities being vacated are scattered over several square blocks at the company’s Centerport headquarters campus just south of D/FW Airport. Two facilities are as far away as Las Colinas. The two remaining buildings - Headquarters 1 and Headquarters 2 - are adjacent to each other along Amon Carter Boulevard.

“In addition to the ongoing facility cost savings and the revenue from the sale of Centerport 2, we’ll gain clear efficiencies by having our management team consolidated into two adjacent buildings, rather than widely dispersed across a wide area - so this is a very smart move all around,” Carty said.

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