On Oct. 22, 2003, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised the outlook on its long-term ratings on AMR Corp. (B-/Stable/--) and its American Airlines Inc. (B-/Stable/--) subsidiary to stable from negative. AMR reported a net and pretax loss of $23 million before special items for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2003, dramatically better than the $741 million pretax loss on a comparable basis in the same period of 2002, driven mostly by lower labor costs. The revision of AMR's outlook to stable reflects much improved operating results and increased liquidity, with $2.8 billion of unrestricted cash. Still, the airline faces an industrywide difficult revenue outlook and remains highly leveraged, with substantial upcoming debt maturities and pension payments. AMR saw
