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.
Founded in 1930, American has been a pioneer of many of the features that make flying easier. American Airlines was the first carrier to offer a frequent flyer program. It was the first airline to use electronic ticketing. Its AAdvantage frequent flier rewards program serves over 50 million members, and is the largest frequent flier program in the world.
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 is also the parent company of a regional carrier called American Eagle Airlines. American Eagle Airlines offers regional service in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and Mexico. Like American Airlines, American Eagle is also headquartered 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.
Most of American’s jets are McDonnell Douglas MD-82 or MD-88 series twinjets. The carrier announced recently that it will order the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to its fleet.
In 2008 American became the first carrier to offer in-flight Internet service on all its planes. This innovation came only a year after the airline began offering Wi-Fi on its flights within the United States.
