The american airline story

The growth of aviation as a major American industry can be attributed to the founding, growth and expansion of America’s number one domestic and also the world’s largest airline company, The American Airlines.

The company started as a consolidation of small aviation companies incorporated into The Aviation Corporation in 1929, which, 5 years after, will become the modern-day American Airlines (AA). The history of AA’s growth as the world leader in aviation included many firsts and innovations. While just starting as a new corporation, AA flew its millionth passenger to become the nation’s number one domestic carrier at the end of the thirties.

During the early 1960s, AA together with IBM introduced SABRE (Semi-Automated Business Research Environment), the largest privately-owned electronic data processing system developed in the 1960s and used for travel agency reservations in 1975.

During 1977, AA started to offer the popular discount fare, Super Saver for flights from New York and California which later expanded throughout all routes. The expansion throughout the North America and the Caribbean started during airline deregulation in 1978.

AA founded initially in New York changed headquarters to a larger facility in Fort Worth Texas, which housed the world’s first flight attendant college built during 1957 and a pilot training facility. AA flew its 500 millionth customer in 1982.  In 1984 the American Eagle system was introduced, the network which will connect small communities to key cities through AA. In 1994, AA flew its billionth passenger.

AA launched its own ticket-less travel and boarding, and also added defibrillators and laptops on-board during 1996. In 1999, AA together with four other airlines launched the one-world alliance proposing a multi-million dollar program to raise the bar of global air travel. The company now flies throughout the five continents in major key cities in Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe, and Australia.

The company’s current chief executive officer, Gerard J. Arpey was elected as President and CEO in May 2004. As CEO, he holds control over large global organizations: AA, American Eagle and AmericanConnection. Before becoming CEO, he worked for the company as EVP for operations, chief executive for finance and planning, financial analyst and numerous management positions.

He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. More than all these qualifications, what mattered most was that Arpey is a licensed private pilot. This I deem most important in order for the management to gear the company towards expansion without compromising the relations with the pilots and other employees and the over-all safety of the passengers.

American Airlines garnered high praise for opening communication lines between managers and employees. The company prevented, for example, to outsource on replacing new bathroom mirrors by making them in their own site using cheaper materials.

This atmosphere of working together spurs a sense of combined responsibility among employees and managers for additional profit of the company. In 1988, AA began to consider good customer relations as its primary marketing strategy.

AA used the tagline “ Something special in the Air,” to bring about this purpose and throughout the eighties until the nineties, used special brand marketing to show empathy for travelers, and that indeed this company understands its flyers.

In the late nineties until today, the company showcased special products, fare and service offerings.  For the year, the airline kept the airfare at the very minimum in order to attract more frequent flyers, and keep up with the intensifying competition.

To be able to join the workforce in this ever dynamic company is one big opportunity one shouldn’t miss considering the much strength, the large potential and the passion to deliver excellent services for its customers this company poses.

References

The American Airline website.   Retrieved 26 Oct 2006, from http://www. aa. com/content/amrcorp/corporateInformation/bios/arpey. jhtml

The American Airline website.   Retrieved 26 Oct 2006, from http://www. aa. com/content/amrcorp/corporateInformation/facts/history. jhtml

The American Airline website.   Retrieved 26 Oct 2006, from http://www. aa. com/content/amrcorp/amrcorp/pressReleases/2004_09/09_branding_bkgrd. jhtml

The American Airline website.   Retrieved 26 Oct 2006, from http://www. aa. com/content/aboutUs/whereWeFly/maps/world. jhtml

Marks, Alexandra. (2005). How one airline flew back into the black. The Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2005 retrieved 26 Oct 2006 from http://www. csmonitor. com/2005/0725/p01s03-usec. html