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American to retire 5 more planes earlier than planned

American Airlines said Monday it plans to speed up the retirement of five more aircraft as it continues to align capacity with weakened demand.

The Boeing 727 planes will be grounded during the fourth quarter of 2001 and the first quarter of 2002, rather than in 2003 as originally planned. The Forth Worth-based airline, which is owned by AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), also said it will retire its remaining four MD-11 aircraft by Nov. 1, earlier than its previous plan to retire the fleet near the end of the year.

"This is a very difficult time in the airline business, and we see no near-term improvement,'' CFO Tom Horton said in a statement. "We will continue to evaluate further cuts in capacity and capital spending as conditions warrant.''

Earlier this month, the carrier said it would ground five Boeing 727s by the end of 2001, two years ahead of their originally scheduled retirement in 2003. American said in June it would accelerate the retirement of 22 aircraft, including TWA's entire fleet of 19 DC-9s, two Boeing 727s and one Fokker 100. In July, the airline decided not to take delivery of five used MD-80s that were scheduled to join the fleet as part of the TWA acquisition.

Horton said these aircraft retirements will enable American to hold capacity nearly flat in 2001 and cut capacity by close to 1 percent in 2002.


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