By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
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Dallas, TX – Fort Worth's AMR corporation, which owns American Airlines, says it lost 340 million dollars in the 4th quarter. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more
And for the full year of 2008, the company lost 2.1 billion dollars. American's CEO Gerard Arpey blamed most of the loss on high fuel costs and reduced travel, even though the carrier cut its fleet and routes. Despite lower fuel costs, American still lost money because it bought fuel in advance at high prices. So did other airlines.
American's quarterly loss included a hundred-3 million dollar charge to pay for buyouts of pilot contracts. Arpey expressed cautious optimism for the company's future, while acknowledging significant hurdles remain.