american airlines

i think there gone :frowning:

Remember, there is a possibility of them merging with either US Airways, or another airline. Also, if you haven’t heard, Delta might be bidding on buying US Airways. airlinersspottersaviationtoday.blogspot.com/. If you scroll down, you’ll find the post, and the link to the full story. Its ran by a friend of mine, and would really appreciate it if you follow!

American Airlines won’t just up and disappear from aviation…silly to even think that.

Or I’m just naive, which is possible.

You would think they will merge with another airline before closing doors.

Not so silly to even think that.

All of these airlines were formed about the same time as American yet all are gone today and they were NOT merged into another airline:

  • Braniff International

  • Eastern

  • Pan American

And these were merged into other airlines yet very little to no trace of them remains today:

  • AirCal

  • PSA

  • National (the original one)

  • TWA

However, none of those airlines were the 3rd/4th largest airline in the country at the time of their dissolution.

A reorganized AA is too large and has too much upside to just completely disappear.

You do realize, nearly ever major carrier in the US has undergone bankruptcy in the last decade? It is not a sign of impending doom, just a legal method to restructure to reduce operating costs.

Pan Am was the USA’s largest international carrier.
Eastern was the part of the “Big 4” airlines.
Braniff was also one of the largest airlines, although not in the top 4.

I know that almost all current major airlines have gone bankrupt. There comes a time when going bankrupt is no going to get the airline reorganized. It wouldn’t surprise me to see American not in existence in the next year or so.

Pan Am was tiny when they shut down. They were basically just a mid-size airline operating out of Miami.

Eastern was also much smaller than American, Delta, United, TWA, and Continental when they shut down - probably smaller than Northwest and USAir too - and remember with so many carriers back then Eastern was a much smaller relative part of the entire industry. AA is a much bigger relative player.

The point I was trying to make was that Eastern and Pan Am were once among the largest airlines in the world. They were smaller when they shut down because they had been whittling away at their routes over the years prior to their self-destruction.

Pan Am’s problem was that they had sold off their profitable routes. I believe had they kept their Pacific routes rather than selling them to United and had shut down their Atlantic routes (mainly unprofitable at the time) they would have survived. Buying National Airlines wasn’t a smart idea either.

Braniff’s problem was that they expanded too fast in the years following airline deregulation.

Eastern had many problems that could be summed up in a few words: bad management/labor relations.