Today AMR and American Airlines made a number of important announcements, including the raising of an additional $1.3 billion in cash reserves, the restructuring of AA and Eagle schedules at several key hubs, the continuation of AA's fleet renewal, and the addition of many new international flights. Finally, Eagle announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Bombardier to exercise its options to purchase 22 new CRJ-700 aircraft. The purchase of these aircraft will be fully financed. I encourage you to go to Jetnet to read AA’s press release and a letter to employees from AMR CEO Gerard Arpey.
The combination of all of these announcements is very positive for AMR, AA and American Eagle. The improvement in AMR's cash balance as a result of the financing agreements will better enable the corporation to manage through this difficult environment and focus on doing the things necessary for intermediate and long-term success. The network changes will make the AA/AE combination more competitive in our most important markets and the addition of 22 CRJ-700s will better enable Eagle to support the AA network and make Eagle a stronger company.
The new aircraft will start arriving in June of 2010 and will be delivered in a two-class configuration, resulting in Eagle's first "First Class" cabin. Starting next spring, Eagle will also commence retrofitting our existing fleet of 25 CRJs to include a first class cabin, so that our entire fleet of 47 CRJ-700s will offer premium class service.
The schedule changes announced today will impact Eagle in a number of ways. First, our schedule in Chicago will be increased, including the shifting of most of the DFW-based CRJs to Chicago starting next spring. Schedules will be increased at JFK and MIA and reduced at BOS and RDU. AA will take over some Eagle routes. Eagle will take over some AA routes and AA and Eagle will share a number of routes for the first time. Final specific schedules are still being nailed down but many of the changes will occur in April of 2010, with the remaining changes occurring over the course of the summer of 2010. More details on the schedule changes can be found on Jetnet.
We are in the process of determining the impact these changes will have on staffing requirements for each of our work groups and will be communicating on this topic as soon as we have definitive information to share.
I believe that the schedule changes which AA has directed for Eagle -- and for AA's other regional partner, Chautauqua Airlines, which AA intends to shift from STL to ORD -- will make the AA network more successful in this extremely competitive business. I am pleased that Eagle will be playing an important role in these changes to strengthen the network and to begin detailed planning for delivery of the new CRJs. I hope you share my pride in the fact that AA has confidence in our ability to respond to these requests and to operate the new schedule safely and reliably.
Today's announcements are consistent with our Plan to Win and its three major strategies of retaining AA as a customer, preparing for growth, and aligning employee interests.
Thank you for everything you do to work safely and provide outstanding service to our customers and each other.
Sincerely,
Peter M. Bowler