Industry challenges continuing - Arpey
American Airlines' (AA) parent company AMR Corporation suffered a $390m (€277m) net loss in the second quarter of the year.
AMR said its results had been hit by a $70m non-recurring charge from the sale and grounding of some aircraft including its leased A300s.
"The challenges for our industry and company have continued throughout 2009," Gerard Arpey, AMR's chairman and ceo, said.
"With ongoing global economic weakness and the resulting effect on travel demand, revenues are down sharply from a year ago."
Mr Arpey said the price of oil had risen this year and remained volatile despite being much lower than in 2008.
But AMR's Q2 2009 loss is dwarfed by the $1.5bn (€1.07bn) net loss reported in the same quarter last year.
AMR said it would continue to focus on improvements this year including the financing of a fleet renewal programme.
AMR said its Q2 revenues, hit by capacity cuts and falling demand for travel, had fallen 21% year-on-year to $4.9bn.
AA estimated the impact of swine flu on its revenues at $30m, down to $50m from $80m year-on-year.
AMR confirmed it is to cut system-wide capacity by around 7.5% this August in an effort to balance declining demand with supply.
The cuts were announced along with plans to shed 1,600 jobs in a bid to "right-size" its operation in the face of falling demand.
The bulk of the redundancies - 1,200 - will be in flight services but maintenance, airport services and cargo would also be affected.
AA and fellow members of the oneworld airline alliance are currently seeking anti-trust immunity (ATI) from the US Department of Transportation (DoT).
Mr Arpey said he expected AA, British Airways, Iberia, Royal Jordanian and Finnair to be successful in their ATI application paving the way for a global "joint business relationship."
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