Don Carty Quotations

Without a doubt, the weakening U.S. economy caused a reduction in business travel that affected our performance in the first quarter.

Since then, we have vastly strengthened our overall domestic and international route network and have entered into alliances with a number of carriers, all of which will make us a much more vigorous competitor in the west.

With the economy weak and fuel prices still relatively high, we and the rest of the industry were experiencing a very difficult financial quarter even before the September 11 attacks. But the attacks and their aftermath further weakened traffic and had a staggering effect on our overall financial performance.

This is, without a doubt, the most difficult thing I have had to do in my two decades at American.

Nonetheless, we look forward to completing the EC review process and then promptly obtaining final approvals from the U.S. and U.K. governments.

My first reaction is it could have been a lot worse than it was.