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 Fuel Smart
Believe
it or not, American Airlines is celebrating its 80th birthday this
year. Considering the changes that have taken place, as well as the
many airlines that have come and gone since 1926, reaching the big 8-0
is no small accomplishment. Our longevity is primarily a function of
our company’s ability to rise to an endless list of challenges — and,
as I’m sure you know, one of the biggest challenges all of us face
these days is the price of fuel. While we are all feeling pain at the
pump, as the world’s largest airline — and a consumer of 2.9 billion
gallons of fuel last year alone — I daresay our pain has been
particularly acute. During the second quarter of this year, 29 cents of
every dollar of revenue we generated went to pay for fuel, compared
with 15 cents in 2003 and a mere nine cents in 1998. The good news is,
though the price of fuel is largely out of our control, it is possible
to reduce the amount of fuel we burn without compromising safety or
service. Under the auspices of a wide-ranging program we call Fuel
Smart, the American team is continually discovering new ways to do just
that.
As you’d expect, the amount of fuel an airplane needs has
a lot to do with its weight. We’ve been working hard to identify and
eliminate items that make our aircraft heavier but don’t add to the
customer experience. As we manage our weight, we’re also conserving
fuel through improved engine and aerodynamic performance. We’re
installing winglets — upward extensions of the wings, which increase
lift, thus increasing fuel economy — on all of our 737 and 757
aircraft, while more special drag-resistant tail cones, fabricated and
installed at our Tulsa maintenance base, will boost the performance of
our MD-80 fleet.
The imperative to conserve fuel is changing
the way we do things on the ground and in the air. One very effective
ground-based initiative is single-engine taxi, which means using only
one engine to taxi the aircraft to and from the runways and not
starting the second engine until it’s needed for takeoff. Listen
carefully after landing and you may hear one of the engines shutting
down. On the ramp, we’ll soon be using high-speed tractors to shuttle
planes between gates and hangars, replacing the much more
fuel-intensive practice of taxiing the aircraft between those
locations. In the air, we’re using sophisticated algorithms written by
AA operations engineers to more accurately analyze wind patterns,
enabling our pilots to save fuel by flying at the perfect altitude and
speed, leveraging tailwinds and avoiding headwinds when possible. We’re
also counting on our customers to help. At many of our stations, flight
attendants may ask you to pull down your window shade, allowing us to
use less fuel while keeping the aircraft comfortable for the folks on
the next flight.
These and the many other fuel-saving
initiatives I don’t have room to describe will reduce our fuel
consumption by more than 100 million gallons this year compared with
2004. That’s a great start, but with prices still soaring, it’s clear
that we need to keep finding new ways to conserve. While we don’t
expect relief from high fuel prices anytime soon, the progress we have
made underscores the fact that the real fuel propelling American
Airlines is the spirit, initiative, and imagination of our people. That
was true 80 years ago, and it’s even truer today. On behalf of our
whole team, thank you for flying with us today. Have a great trip!
GERARD J. ARPEY
Chairman & CEO
American Airlines
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