American Airlines 2000 Annual Report Download - page 5

every bit as important as the other five
areas of the Airline Leadership Plan,
and in 2000 American launched a num-
ber of “people initiatives” with that in
mind. These include the aforementioned
on-time on-line program, enhancements
to our 401(k) program, improved flight
privileges, the introduction of domestic
partner benefits and a new long-term care
benefit. We also reinvigorated our corpo-
rate training programs with the opening
of FlagShip University, created a People
Selection Center focused on more quickly
identifying qualified new-hire candidates,
and reaffirmed our commitment to giving
our people a greater voice through
360 degree performance reviews and
a company-wide employee survey.
These positive initiatives notwith-
standing, as we enter 2001, we face a
number of unresolved issues associated
with the unions representing many of
our people, and those issues inject an ele-
ment of uncertainty into our 2001 forecast.
Nonetheless, we are confident that we will
be able to reach agreements that meet the
needs of the Company and all our employ-
ees, while avoiding any disruption of the
American operation.
As we scan the horizon for other
matters affecting our business in 2001 and
beyond, it is clear that Netw or k – the sixth
area of our Airline Leadership Plan – will
continue to be key to American’s success.
In 2000, we pursued our goal of network
leadership in a number of ways. First, we
grew our domestic network in a very strate-
gic manner, expanding our operations in
cities like Boston, New York, Los Angeles
and San Jose – cities that are very impor-
tant to our prime business customers. In
2001, we will build on our success by
continuing to expand our San Jose sched-
ule with new service to both Paris and
Taipei. The Taipei service is particularly
notable in that it will enable us to begin
the expan-
sion of our
Pacific net-
work by
linking
Silicon Valley
with the very
important technol-
ogy industries of Taiwan.
Closer to home, we’re
also pursuing Network Leadership through
American Eagle’s aggressive deployment
of regional jets. In addition to strengthen-
ing and feeding our hubs – and putting
hundreds of thousands of customers on
American flights – these new aircraft have
been effective weapons as we explore
new point-to-point opportunities in mar-
kets previously considered other airlines’
strongholds. At the end of 2000, the Eagle
RJ fleet was 83 strong, and as we continue
to grow and strengthen the Eagle fleet and
network, the overall American network
will get stronger as well.
In the global arena, while the past
two years have been a somewhat uncer-
tain time when it comes to airline
alliances, we continue to believe that with
our on eworld partners – combined with
our bilateral relationships with carriers
such as Swissair, Sabena, JAL and EVA
of Taiwan – we have built the industry’s
premier set of alliances. Indeed, despite
a few speed bumps along the way, the
effectiveness of our alliance strategy is
clear. The traffic connecting to American
from our partners has grown dramatically
over the past two years.
While our 2000 network progress
was impressive, three transactions
announced in January 2001 represent a
giant leap forward for our network build-
ing efforts. First, we agreed to purchase
substantially all the assets of TWA for
approximately $625 million in cash and
the assumption of over $3 billion of
We seized industry
leadership in onboard
comfort with the
launch and implemen-
tation of our M ore
Room Throughout
Coach program.
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