AA Bankruptcy

This morning AMR Corporation, parent of American Airlines, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

From AA’s own statement:

FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — AMR Corporation (“the Company”), the parent company of American Airlines, Inc. (“American”) and AMR Eagle Holding Corporation (“American Eagle”), announced that in order to achieve a cost and debt structure that is industry competitive and thereby assure its long-term viability and ability to continue delivering a world-class travel experience for its customers, the Company and certain of its U.S.-based subsidiaries (including American and American Eagle), today filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The filing will not have any immediate effect on flight operations. Though AA has not operated any main-deck freighters in many years, it does have a substantial belly cargo operation.

AA recently made huge headlines with a massive order for the Airbus A320 NEO (and for 737s, a mixture of NG and MAX), and has been replacing its older MD-80 fleet with 737-800s for several years now. Cargo Facts captured this AA MD-82 (N7526A, msn: 49918) and 737-800 at O’hare back in August.

We will be bringing you more coverage of the AA filing very soon.

Photographer: Alex Kwanten