Thursday, October 22, 2015

Special Jetwire
A Message from Steve and Elise

Dear Fellow Employees,
Since our merger closed nearly two years ago, the American team has come together and worked very hard to
integrate the two airlines. The terrific results of those efforts have been delivered time and time again over the
past 18 months, including last weekend with our reservation system cutover. While there’s more work to do,
we’ve come a long way thanks to all of your outstanding efforts.
What’s been especially noteworthy during our integration is the way we have all pulled together as one team.
Our frontline team members have had to learn new systems and processes, while others in support roles have
had to learn and use multiple systems and use manual processes. Our integration isn’t complete, but today, we
are one team pulling for the success of American.
One of our most important integration goals has been to better connect all 100,000 employees. That’s a difficult
task because most of our team members’ offices are cockpits, galleys, hangars, call centers, airport ticket
counters/gates and aircraft cargo holds. Connecting 100,000 people across a largely mobile environment is
challenging but necessary if we are to build the greatest airline in the world.
A key component of that challenge revolves around connecting frontline employees and the headquarters staff.
Today’s corporate staff and support teams sit in Fort Worth in HDQ1 and HDQ2, two older, inefficient office
buildings that are becoming increasingly costly to maintain and are inconvenient and uninviting to nonheadquarters employees. Our current headquarters is remote from the very people we are here to support. And
while we can’t build a headquarters at every hub, or even at DFW Airport, we have a plan for American’s future
that will help bridge the gap between our frontline team members and the employees who support them.
This plan will utilize a site adjacent to our existing west campus in Fort Worth – home of the Flight Academy,
Flagship University and Conference Center, DFW RES, the new Robert W. Baker Integrated Operations Center,
and the C.R. Smith Museum – to build four buildings that will house the management team as well as our
corporate and staff functions.
Last year alone more than 75,000 employees, including all 15,000 pilots and 25,000 flight attendants, attended
training or meetings at the Flight Academy and Training and Conference Center. This new headquarters location
will provide the underpinnings for One Campus/One Team and will serve not only the 5,000 or so employees
who work in the new buildings, but will also provide a meeting place for all 100,000 American Airlines team
members.
In addition to a desire to move employees closer to each other, this decision was also driven by the reality that
we can’t stay in HDQ1 and HDQ2 for more than a few years without a significant and very expensive makeover.
The buildings are almost 30 years old, facing the end of the life of a number of key building systems, and very
expensive to maintain. Our decision was made easy by the availability of the property adjacent to the existing
west campus and the opportunity to combine our headquarters team members with our team members who
serve our customers.
We expect to break ground on the new buildings next spring and to complete construction and move in late
summer/early fall 2018. We will have more information to share in the coming months – including a more
specific timetable as the project gets underway. For now, it’s business as usual, and we both thank you for all
you continue to do to serve our customers.

Steve, EVP, Corporate Affairs

Elise, EVP, People & Communications