American Airlines: From Texas To The World

One of the world’s largest and best known passenger airlines is headquartered in the unlikely location of Fort Worth, Texas, which is just a few miles from DFW, its main hub. American Airlines offers thousands of flights to hundreds of locations in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, India, China, and Japan.

American Airlines was founded in 1930 and is the first airline to offer electronic ticketing.  American Airlines is also the first airline to offer a frequent flyer travel program.  Its Advantage rewards program remains the largest frequent flyer program with more than 50 million members.

Flying almost 700 planes to over 250 cities, American Airlines is especially popular on routes within the USA and between the United States and Latin America, carrying over a million passengers a year between the two markets. In fact, no other carrier serves more passengers between Latin American and the USA than American. But American Airlines is also strong in many other international markets.

American has four airline hubs throughout the world.  They are located in Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.  American Airlines also has a large presence in Los Angeles, New York City and Boston. American Airlines employees thousands of workers at its maintenance bases in Tulsa, Kansas City and Fort Worth.

American Airlines’ regional carrier is American Eagle. This subsidiary offers regional service to smaller airports in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. American Eagle’s headquarters are also located in Fort Worth, Texas.

American Airlines was one of the founding members of Oneworld, the third-largest airline alliance on earth, sharing ticketing and luggage transfer facilities with numerous other carriers to make flying more convenient. Oneworld airlines also share passenger terminals and frequent flier programs. Oneworld celebrates 10 years of service in 2009.

Part of the reason American Airlines serves so many destinations around the world, but especially in the USA, was its acquisition of Trans World Airlines (TWA) and the TWA hub in St. Louis in 2001. Unfortunately, the acquisition of TWA caused American to bleed cash, and these financial problems were compounded when two American Airlines planes were hijacked and crashed on 9/11. After the September attacks, American Airlines was forced to relinquish its St. Louis hub and to lay off a small number, that is, a few dozen, former TWA employees. American Airlines continues to struggle to minimize its losses, and in 2008 was the first airline to charge fees for checked baggage. Despite the nearly universal unpopularity of the move with passengers, just as they adopted other American Airlines innovations, other carriers also announced their own baggage fees.

Of American’s fleet of nearly 700 jets, most of them are McDonnell Douglas MD-82 and MD-88 twinjets. American recently announced it will order the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to add to its fleet.

American Airlines is also a leader in offering in-flight technology.  In 2008, American became the first airline to offer full in-flight internet service.  This came only a year after American began offering free Wi-fi service to passengers on its flights in the United States.