American Airlines

In 1934, American Airways Company became American Airlines, Inc. It is now one of the divisions operated by its parent company, AMR Corp. AMR Corp. also operates American Eagle Airlines, Inc. and Trans World Airlines, LLC.

American Airlines developed from a conglomeration of about 82 small airlines companies through a series of corporate acquisitions and reorganizations. In 1934, American Airways Company, in financial straits, was acquired by a corporate raider, E.L. (Errett Lobban) Cord. who renamed the company "American Airlines".

One of the early American Airlines presidents, C.R. (Cyrus Rowlett) Smith, worked closely with Donald-Douglas to develop the DC-3, which American Airlines started flying in 1936.

As of May 2002, American Airlines served 172 cities with a fleet of 833 aircraft - with an average of 2800 daily departures. The average age of their aircraft is 10.8 years. (from the AMR Corp. page at http://www.amrcorp.com/)

American Airlines moved its corporate headquarters from New York to the Dallas/Ft.Worth, Texas area in 1979.

American Airlines lost two aircraft in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, American Airlines flight 77 and American Airlines flight 11.

External link

http://www.aa.com/ - Official homepage

Sources:

Eagle by Robert J. Serling, published by St.Martin's/Marek in 1985.
International Directory of Company Histories St. James Press.