High Fuel Costs Hurt American Airlines

There's more bad news for American Airlines.  The Dallas-based company announced it lost nearly $1.5 billion during the second quarter.  News On 6 anchor Terry Hood reports the losses will have an impact on Tulsa's largest employer.

American Airlines managers in Tulsa declined to comment, but corporate officials in Dallas say there's no mystery that rising fuel prices are to blame and say the situation is beyond frustrating.

Calling the rise in fuel costs extraordinary, American Airlines announced a net loss of $1.4 billion over the last three months.  Fuel costs alone spiked 47%, up nearly $800 million from a year ago.

Near Mingo and 36th Street North, sits American's facility in Tulsa.  The maintenance facility is one of three similar operations American has across the country.  Around 8,000 people work on more than a thousand airplanes every year.

American had previously announced plans to cut 209 jobs at airports in Texas, in addition to dropping flights across the country.

On Wednesday, the company said it's retiring all 34 of its A-300 aircraft in 2009, as well as more than 100 other planes by the end of this year.

The loss in planes could mean less work to be done in Tulsa, except American is also increasing the work it does on third-party planes, aircraft that are owned by another company.

Other good news for Tulsa came last week when American announced it will lease a new 80,000 square foot hangar at Tulsa International Airport.

At the time, a spokesman for the company said the need for more room in Tulsa is long overdue.

"Our hangars are so full that we have work going on outside on the ramp and days like today when we have a lot of rain, it's very difficult to work airplanes outside," said Carmine Romano with American Airlines.