AMR posts $241 million loss in the second quarter

July 19--AMR Corp. posted a $241 million loss for the second quarter largely because of reorganization fees the parent company of American Airlines paid in bankruptcy.

The loss was an improvement over the $286 million loss the Fort Worth-based carrier reported in the second quarter of 2011. Revenues grew 5.5 percent to $6.4 billion, up from $6.1 billion the same period last year.

AMR said its quarterly results include $336 million in special charges and reorganization fees. About $106 million was associated with severance costs to laid off passenger service agents and managers and included changes to the Transport Workers Union contracts that were ratified in May, said AMR chief financial officer Bella Goren. Another $230 million was due to restructuring aircraft leases and finances, rejecting facility bonds and paying professional consulting fees in bankruptcy.

Without the one-time accounting charges, AMR said it would have posted a $95 million profit.

"AMR's revenue growth outpaced the industry in each of the three months of the second quarter and these domestic and international results underscore that our plan is working and the restructuring momentum both on the revenue side and the cost side is certainly building," Goren said in an interview Wednesday morning.

The carrier paid $3.24 per gallon of jet fuel in the quarter, paying about $81 million more than the second quarter of 2011 for fuel.

It also cut capacity in its domestic operations by 1.9 percent and its international operations by 3.0 percent, mostly in its trans-Atlantic flights, during the quarter. Goren said the drop in trans-Atlantic capacity was caused by American discontinuing its Chicago-New Delhi route, which ended on March 1.

AMR said its unit revenues -- a measure that tracks how much money an airline collects for every seat-mile flown -- grew 9.1 percent compared to the previous year's second quarter.

The company has also improved its cash balance, ending the quarter with $5.1 billion in cash and short-term investments. The company entered bankruptcy in November with $4.1 billion in cash.

Copyright 2012 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas