Over the past several years, American has made great strides in virtually every area of its business, including ongoing initiatives to simplify its fleet and schedules, save fuel and reduce distribution costs. Through these and other efforts, American now has one of the most competitive non-labor costs per available seat mile (CASM) in the industry.

But continued success can only be sustained by addressing those areas where American is not competitive. American currently has a significant labor cost disadvantage compared to other airlines. This is a result of other carriers who have chosen to use bankruptcy as a tool to reduce their costs in this area. Achieving a competitive cost per unit of production would be an essential step of reducing American’s CASM and allow the company to bring greater career opportunities and job security for all of its employees.

The company is eager to engage in collective bargaining discussions about the myriad of ways to meet employee goals of increasing income, while also raising employee efficiency and productivity and achieving a competitive “cost per unit of production.”