American Airlines to pay $3.8 billion for new planes through 2016

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July 26--American Airlines will pay $3.8 billion over the next five years for new aircraft, including the leased airplanes it ordered from Boeing and Airbus last week.

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday by American's parent company, AMR Corp., revealed more details about its 460-plane order.

The Fort Worth-based airline already had 69 planes on order from Boeing, which it is scheduled to receive from 2011 to 2016. The $3.8 billion payments include these aircraft.

AMR said it will pay $532 million this year for aircraft and $1.3 billion next year. That rises to $1.4 billion in 2013 but is followed by much smaller payments the following three years.

The company had previously announced that it had received $13 billion in financing for the first 100 Boeing and 130 Airbus aircraft in its new order.

The filing also indicated that American expects to receive 20 Boeing 737 next-generation airplanes and 20 to 35 of Airbus' current A320 aircraft each year between 2013 and 2017. It then anticipates that it will receive 20 re-engined Boeing 737s and 20 to 25 of Airbus' "new-engine option" aircraft each year between 2018 and 2022.

Request for Japan waiver granted

The U.S. Transportation Department granted American's request to allow it to suspend service without penalty between New York's Kennedy Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport, as traffic declined after the earthquake and tsunami in March.

American is now allowed to suspend the route until June 1, 2012, and will not lose the rights to the route as it otherwise would have if it had not operated the route for 90 days. The agency had previously granted a similar request to Delta Air Lines for its Detroit-Haneda service.

American launched its JFK-Haneda service in February, using a Boeing 777, after the department awarded it one of the four coveted Haneda routes. Until Japan and the U.S. signed the open-skies treaty in 2010, U.S. airlines were allowed to fly only into Tokyo's Narita Airport, which is not as convenient to Tokyo's downtown. Delta and Hawaiian Airlines were also awarded Haneda routes from different cities.

Andrea Ahles, 817-390-7613