American Airlines Group Value Stock - Dividend - Research Selection

American Airlines Group Inc. (AAG), a Delaware corporation, is a holding company and its principal, wholly-owned subsidiaries are American Airlines, Inc. (American), Envoy Aviation Group Inc. (Envoy), PSA Airlines, Inc. (PSA) and Piedmont Airlines, Inc. (Piedmont). AAG was formed in 1982 under the name AMR Corporation (AMR) as the parent company of American, which was founded in 1934. On December 9, 2013, a subsidiary of AMR merged with and into US Airways Group, Inc. (US Airways Group), a Delaware corporation, which survived as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AAG, and AAG emerged from Chapter 11 (the Merger). Upon closing of the Merger and emergence from Chapter 11, AMR changed its name to American Airlines Group Inc. On December 30, 2015, in order to simplify AAG’s internal corporate structure, US Airways Group merged with and into AAG, with AAG as the surviving corporation and, immediately thereafter, US Airways, Inc. (US Airways), a wholly-owned subsidiary of US Airways Group, merged with and into American, with American as the surviving corporation.

AAG’s and American’s principal executive offices are located at 4333 Amon Carter Boulevard, Fort Worth, Texas 76155 and our telephone number is 817-963-1234.

Airline Operations

Our primary business activity is the operation of a major network carrier, providing scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo.

Together with our wholly-owned regional airline subsidiaries and third-party regional carriers operating as American Eagle, our airline operates an average of nearly 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries, principally from our hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. In 2016, approximately 199 million passengers boarded our mainline and regional flights. During 2016, we launched new nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Hong Kong as well as between LAX and Auckland, New Zealand. We also launched our first-ever regularly scheduled flights to Cuba in 2016 with non-stop service to Havana from Miami and Charlotte and to Cienfuegos, Holguin, Camaguey, Santa Clara and Varadero from Miami, making us amongst the top leaders in air service between the U.S. and Cuba.

As of December 31, 2016, we operated 930 mainline aircraft and are supported by our regional airline subsidiaries and third-party regional carriers, which operated an additional 606 regional aircraft. See Part I, Item 2. Properties for further discussion on our mainline and regional aircraft and “Regional” below for further discussion on our regional operations.

American is a founding member of the oneworld alliance, whose members and members-elect serve more than 1,000 destinations with approximately 14,250 daily flights to over 150 countries. See “Ticket Distribution and Marketing Agreements” below for further discussion on the oneworld alliance and other agreements with domestic and international airlines.

Regional

We have arrangements with regional carriers to provide us with regional jet and turboprop service under the brand name “American Eagle.” The American Eagle carriers include our wholly-owned regional carriers, Envoy, PSA and Piedmont, as well as third-party regional carriers including Republic Airline Inc. (Republic), Mesa Airlines, Inc. (Mesa), Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation (Air Wisconsin), Compass Airlines, LLC (Compass), ExpressJet Airlines, Inc. (ExpressJet), SkyWest Airlines, Inc. (SkyWest) and Trans States Airlines, Inc. (Trans States). These carriers are an integral component of our operating network. We rely heavily on feeder traffic from these carriers, which transport passengers to our hubs from low-density markets that are not economical for us to serve with larger, mainline aircraft. In addition, regional carriers offer complementary service in our existing mainline markets by operating flights during off-peak periods between mainline flights. During 2016, approximately 54 million passengers boarded our regional carriers’ planes, approximately 44% of whom connected to or from our mainline flights. Of these passengers, approximately 26 million were enplaned by our wholly-owned regional carriers and approximately 28 million were enplaned by third-party regional carriers. All American Eagle carriers use logos, service marks, aircraft paint schemes and uniforms similar to our mainline operations.

The American Eagle arrangements are principally in the form of capacity purchase agreements. The capacity purchase agreements provide that all revenues, including passenger, in-flight, ancillary, mail and freight revenues, go to us. In return, we agree to pay predetermined fees to these airlines for operating an agreed-upon number of aircraft, without regard to the number of passengers on board. In addition, these agreements provide that we reimburse 100% of certain variable costs, such as airport landing fees and passenger liability insurance. We control marketing, scheduling, ticketing, pricing and seat inventories.

A limited number of regional aircraft are operated for us under prorate agreements, under which the regional carriers receive a prorated share of ticket revenue and pay certain service fees to us. The prorate carriers are responsible for all costs incurred operating the applicable aircraft.

Cargo

Our cargo division provides a wide range of freight and mail services, with facilities and interline connections available across the globe. In 2016, we were named the Cargo Airline of the Year for the second year running and Best Cargo Airline from the Americas for the ninth consecutive year by Air Cargo News.

Ticket Distribution and Marketing Agreements

Passengers can purchase tickets for travel on American through several distribution channels, including our website (www.aa.com), our reservations centers and third-party distribution channels, including those provided by or through global distribution systems (e.g., Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport), conventional travel agents and online travel agents (e.g., Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity). To remain competitive, we need to successfully manage our distribution costs and rights, increase our distribution flexibility and improve the functionality of third-party distribution channels, while maintaining an industry-competitive cost structure. For more discussion, see Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors – “We rely on third-party distribution channels and must manage effectively the costs, rights and functionality of these channels.”

In general, beyond nonstop city pairs, carriers that have the greatest ability to seamlessly connect passengers to and from markets have a competitive advantage. In some cases, however, foreign governments limit U.S. air carriers’ rights to transport passengers beyond designated gateway cities in foreign countries. In order to improve access to domestic and foreign markets, we have arrangements with other airlines including the oneworld alliance, other cooperation agreements, joint business agreements (JBAs), and marketing relationships.

Member of oneworld Alliance

American is a founding member of the oneworld alliance, which includes Air Berlin, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas Airways, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and TAM Airlines. The oneworld alliance links the networks of the member carriers to enhance customer service and smooth connections to the destinations served by the alliance, including linking the carriers’ loyalty programs and access to the carriers’ airport lounge facilities.

Cooperation and Joint Business Agreements

American is party to antitrust-immunized cooperation agreements with British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Royal Jordanian, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines and LAN Peru. American has also established JBAs with British Airways, Iberia and Finnair, and separately Japan Airlines, that enable the carriers to cooperate on flights between particular destinations and allow pooling and sharing of certain revenues and costs, enhanced loyalty program reciprocity and cooperation in other areas. American and its joint business partners received regulatory approval to enter into these JBAs and cooperation agreements.

We signed a revised JBA with Qantas Airways and applied for antitrust immunity with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for the revised relationship, but we withdrew that application in November 2016 after it was tentatively denied by the DOT. However, we expect that our existing, more limited cooperation with Qantas will continue, and we intend to file a new application for antitrust immunity with the DOT later this year. In addition, we have signed JBAs with certain air carriers of the LATAM Airlines Group and have applied for approval in the relevant jurisdictions affected by such agreements, which applications are still pending before the relevant regulators.

Marketing Relationships

To improve access to each other’s markets, various U.S. and foreign air carriers, including American, have established marketing relationships with other airlines. These marketing agreements generally provide enhanced customer choice by means of an expanded network with reciprocal loyalty program participation and joint sales cooperation. American currently has marketing relationships with Air Berlin, Air Tahiti Nui, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cape Air, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, EL AL, Etihad Airways, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Gulf Air, Hainan Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia, Interjet, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, Jetstar Group (includes Jetstar Airways and Jetstar Japan), Korean Air, LATAM (includes LAN Airlines, LAN Argentina, LAN Colombia, LAN Ecuador, LAN Peru, TAM Airlines and TAM Mercosur), Malaysia Airlines, Niki Airlines, Qantas Airways, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, Seaborne Airlines and WestJet.