American Airlines

American Airlines is one of the leading airlines of not only the USA, rather the whole world. In fact, it is the largest airline in the world, in terms of passenger miles transported and passenger fleet size. At the same time, it occupies the, second position in aircraft operated (behind FedEx Express) and in operating revenues (behind Air France-KLM). The headquarters of the airlines are located in Fort Worth, Texas. It is a member of International Air Transport Association (IATA), an organisation which represents the airline industry.

Gerard Arprey is the present Chairman, President and CEO of the American Airlines. The current slogan of the airline goes "We know why you fly, we're American Airlines." The airline has a fleet of over 600 aircrafts at present, which includes Airbus A300-600R, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 757-200WL, Boeing 767-200ER, Boeing 767-300ER, Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 787-9, McDonnell Douglas MD-82, McDonnell Douglas MD-83. It has also placed an order for around 60 new planes.

History
The origin of American Airlines can be traced back to times of the Second World War. A group of over 80-82 independent air carriers came together under the umbrella of American Airways. A common brand used by a number of independent carriers, American Airways included Southern Air Transport in Texas, Southern Air Fast Express (SAFE) in the western US, Universal Aviation in the mid-west, Thompson Aeronautical Services and Colonial Air Transport in the northeast.

It was on 25th January 25 1930 that American Airways came to be incorporated as a single company. It was based in New York and operated with routes from Boston, New York and Chicago to Dallas, and from Dallas to Los Angeles. Four years later, in 1934, American Airways Company was acquired by E.L. Cord, which gave it the name of 'American Airlines' (AA). Sometime later AA became owner of the world's first airline lounge at the new LaGuardia Airport (LGA). Since then, it has only grown by leads and bounds.

Destinations Covered
American Airlines covers more than 250 destinations and flies to almost 50 countries in the world. It is the only American air service with flights scheduled to Bolivia, Dominica, Grenada, Anguilla, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay. It offers non-stop services from/to Miami to Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte in Brazil and Panama City. The air service also provides non-stop service from Chicago to Moscow. It also plans to start a Chicago to Beijing service in 2010. It even offers full in-flight internet service, which started as late as 2008.

Partnerships
In addition to Oneworld, American Connection and American Eagle, American Airlines offers regular flier partnerships with Air Pacific, Jet Airways, Gulf Air, China Eastern Airlines, EVA Air, Alaska Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Tahiti Nui, Brussels Airlines and El Al Israel Airlines. The Airlines also has partnership with Deutsche Bahn and SNCF rail services. American Eagle Airlines is the regional partner of American Airlines.

Accolades
Credited with maintaining an impressive environmental track record, American Airlines received the 2005 'Governor's Award' by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, for its commendable efforts in environment protection and pollution prevention. The Airline has also received the award for reduction of hazardous waste, which saved it a fortune due to a timely investment of 2000 dollars. It also swiftly corrected certain violations of the Clean Air Act, when it used high sulphur fuel for the airlines.

9/11 Setback & Come-back
American Airlines suffered a setback when its carriers were used to launch a major terrorist attack on the U.S on Sept 11, 2001, the most fatal attack in the US history so far. Though it lost a lot of money, it managed to avoid suffering from any serious debacle and came back with a bang. In fact, the airlines, later, successfully expanded to Ireland, India and China. It also launched its Chicago to Delhi service and Chicago to Shanghai service in 2005 and 2006 respectively.