UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): December 9, 2021
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| (State or other Jurisdiction of Incorporation) | (Commission File Number) | (IRS Employer Identification No.) | ||||||||||||
| (Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | ||||||||||||||||
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:
(682 ) 278-9000
(682 ) 278-9000
N/A | ||||||||
| (Former name or former address if changed since last report.) | ||||||||
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:
| Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) | |||||
| Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) | |||||
| Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) | |||||
| Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) | |||||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||||||||
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
| Emerging growth company | |||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
| ITEM 7.01. | REGULATION FD DISCLOSURE. | ||||
On December 9, 2021, American Airlines, Inc. (“American”) issued a press release announcing certain changes to its summer 2022 international schedule. The press release is furnished herewith as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated by reference into this Item 7.01.
In addition, on December 9, 2021, American distributed a letter to employees discussing the aforementioned schedule changes. This letter is furnished herewith as Exhibit 99.2 and is incorporated by reference into this Item 7.01.
The information in Item 7.01, including Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2, is being furnished and shall not be deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that Section and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference into any registration statement or other document filed pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.
| ITEM 9.01. | FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND EXHIBITS. | ||||
| (d) Exhibits. | ||||||||
| Exhibit No. | Description | |||||||
| 99.1 | ||||||||
| 99.2 | ||||||||
| 104.1 | Cover page interactive data file (embedded within the Inline XBRL document). | |||||||
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, American Airlines Group Inc. has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC. | |||||||||||
| Date: December 9, 2021 | By: | /s/ Derek J. Kerr | |||||||||
| Derek J. Kerr | |||||||||||
| Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer | |||||||||||
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, American Airlines, Inc. has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. | |||||||||||
| Date: December 9, 2021 | By: | /s/ Derek J. Kerr | |||||||||
| Derek J. Kerr | |||||||||||
| Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer | |||||||||||
Exhibit 99.1
 | Corporate Communications | |||||||
| mediarelations@aa.com | ||||||||
CONNECTING CUSTOMERS TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND BEYOND, AMERICAN AIRLINES ANNOUNCES SERVICE TO DOHA, QATAR
Seasonal routes to Europe will also return for summer 2022 travel
•American will launch service from New York’s JFK to Doha, Qatar, on June 7, 2022, as part of its deepening relationship with Qatar Airways.
•Seasonal routes to customer favorite destinations such as, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Venice return to American’s summer 2022 schedule.
•For customers wanting to visit Athens and Rome, American will launch seasonal services earlier than in previous years.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Customers looking for unique travel experiences will have a new destination and many returning favorites to choose from as American Airlines announces its summer 2022 schedule.
Starting in June, customers will be able to travel to the Middle East and connect to the African continent, Indian Ocean resorts and beyond with American’s new service from New York (JFK) to Doha, Qatar (DOH). Located in the heart of the Middle East, Doha offers a range of attractions, including museums and galleries, desert safari adventures and beautiful landscapes such as the amazing Inland Sea.
“We continue to creatively find ways to build a network that gets customers where they want to go when they are ready to travel,” said Brian Znotins, American’s Vice President of Network Planning. “Adding Doha to our expansive global network and resuming a significant portion of our European routes provides our customers with more choices as they plan next year’s vacations.”
With the launch of American’s new service to Doha, the airline will deepen its relationship with Qatar Airways. Customers have already benefited from the expansive codeshare between the two airlines as it has allowed customers to access new destinations in the Middle East, East Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia that American does not currently serve.
“We look forward to welcoming our oneworld partner and friends at American Airlines to our home airport in Doha, recently voted the World’s Best Airport, and offer connectivity to numerous business and leisure destinations across the region and beyond,” said Thierry Antinori, Qatar Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer.
A seasonal summer 2022 schedule
To offer our customers the most connectivity to the destinations they want to travel to, American has strategically built a summer schedule that optimizes the use of the airline’s widebody fleet, focused on the most popular destinations and maximizes connections with international partners.
All widebody aircraft currently being used on short-haul routes in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Mexico will be redeployed to popular trans-Atlantic destinations next summer, including Barcelona, Spain (BCN); Lisbon, Portugal (LIS); and Venice, Italy (VCE). This spring, American will resume service from Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT), to Rome (FCO) and start up seasonal services to both FCO and Athens, Greece (ATH), earlier than in previous years.
Continued delivery delays of Boeing 787 aircraft have provided unique challenges in planning international flying months in advance. As a result, American will not resume service to Edinburgh, Scotland (EDI), or Shannon, Ireland (SNN) in 2022. And as demand remains soft in Asia, American is discontinuing service to Hong Kong (HKG).
American has also adjusted operations on some existing Asia and South America routes and reduced frequencies, allowing the airline to offer more options to customers next summer.
Continuing a robust international schedule
In the past year, American has continued to provide customers with international travel options, getting them where they want to go when they decide to return to travel. American launched 37 long-haul international routes in 2021, including seven new routes: Seattle (SEA) to London (LHR); JFK to Santiago, Chile (SCL); JFK to Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV): Boston (BOS) to LHR; JFK to ATH; Miami (MIA) to TLV; and JFK to Delhi, India (DEL).
American’s global partnerships with fellow oneworld alliance carriers and the innovative domestic partnerships with JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines complement American’s network and create more choices for customers whether they want to travel to London, Seattle or Boston.
About American Airlines Group
American’s purpose is to care for people on life’s journey. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AAL and the company’s stock is included in the S&P 500. Learn more about what's happening at American by visiting news.aa.com and connect with American on Twitter @AmericanAir and at Facebook.com/AmericanAirlines.
American’s purpose is to care for people on life’s journey. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AAL and the company’s stock is included in the S&P 500. Learn more about what's happening at American by visiting news.aa.com and connect with American on Twitter @AmericanAir and at Facebook.com/AmericanAirlines.
###
-2-
Exhibit 99.2
Dear Team,
This weekend we will load our summer 2022 long-haul schedule, but it will not have the growth we initially expected. Boeing continues to be unable to deliver the 787s we have on order, including as many as 13 aircraft that were slated to be in our fleet by this winter. Without these widebodies, we simply won’t be able to fly as much internationally as we had planned next summer or as we did in summer 2019.
Despite this setback, we will take actions to control what we can and deliver the best possible airline to our customers. We will do our best to minimize the damage these aircraft delivery delays have caused to our long-haul portfolio while giving certainty to our customers who will begin to book summer travel in the new year.
Due to the lack of widebody aircraft, we must make several changes to the schedule, including eliminating or delaying several routes for summer 2022:
•We will no longer serve Edinburgh, Scotland; Shannon, Ireland; or Hong Kong. We’ll continue to evaluate these routes as more aircraft become available and would like to be able to serve them again in the future.
•Many markets we operated in 2019 will not return this summer, such as Dubrovnik, Croatia, and Prague.
•We are temporarily, but significantly, reducing frequencies to Asia-Pacific cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney throughout our system.
•We are delaying the launch of service to new markets, such as Seattle to Bangalore, India.
To mitigate the impact and provide the best international network possible:
•Every widebody in our fleet will be deployed to long-haul routes — no single widebody will operate exclusively in our domestic or short-haul international network (in contrast to summer and winter 2021).
•We already offer customers the best and biggest domestic and short-haul international network in the industry. In 2022, we will shift more resources to improve that flying and expect to offer customers a short-haul network that is even more comprehensive than what we offered in 2019.
•We are orienting our long-haul flying to preserve scale in our strongest markets, such as MCLA, and growing our scale in key partner hubs. We expect to fly a full schedule to London, Dublin and Madrid as soon as we are able, and we will add JFK to Doha, Qatar, this summer to build on our partnerships and grow our presence in Africa, India and the Middle East.
Our 787 aircraft are an important part of our fleet. Despite this delay, we still have great confidence in the Dreamliner and continue to work with Boeing on when these planes can be ultimately delivered to us. In addition, Boeing has advised us that they will compensate American for their inability to deliver the aircraft.
At the end of the day nothing can deter us. No matter the challenge we face, we will act swiftly and aggressively to deliver an industry-leading airline for our customers, reliably and profitably. Full stop. Thanks for all you do.
Vasu