American Airlines parent reports loss of $238M

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NEW YORK American Airlines parent company AMR lost $238 million in the third quarter on employee severance payouts and other costs related to its bankruptcy.

Without those charges, the Fort Worth, Texas, company posted an operating profit as it cut costs, paid less for fuel and benefited from a partnership that boosted traffic overseas.

The quarterly loss works out to 71 cents per share. A year ago, AMR lost $162 million, or 48 cents per share.

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AMR said its core performance improved. It made more money per passenger and flights were fuller than any quarter before.

That effort was overshadowed late in the quarter by widespread cancellations and delays in September, which the airline blamed on its pilots.

"We haven't delivered well enough for our customers in recent weeks and our operations have certainly not been up to our high standards," Virasb Vahidi, AMR's chief commercial officer, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Still, the airline said that costs related to the slowdown weren't material to its quarterly results.

Vahidi noted that after almost a year in bankruptcy, AMR is more than halfway to its goal of closing a gap in margins with its rivals. And unit revenue and traffic are heading in the right direction. The executive said cost savings should accelerate as it reaps benefits from new union contracts that it signed with thousands of employees.

American also said Wednesday that 2,250 of its flight attendants took $40,000 buyout offers to leave the company. It will hire 1,500 flight attendants starting next month because such a large number accepted the buyouts.

On Tuesday, AMR asked for a 30-day extension to file a reorganization plan. It's the third time the company has asked for more time. Approval would push the deadline to late January.

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Somehow AMR feels comfortable spinning that they have made great improvements while posting a larger loss than the previous year. You would think those accounting folks would have learned from Enron, Anderson Consulting and the many other misleaders that have paid the price for spinning yarns.