The 'D' corporate credit ratings on Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp. and its principal operating subsidiary, American Airlines Inc., is based on the companies' Nov. 29, 2011, Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The filing occurred several weeks after American's pilot union rejected a contract proposal but while further negotiations under a federal mediator were still planned. The choice to file while AMR maintained adequate liquidity ($4.2 billion of unrestricted cash and short-term investments) indicates that AMR's board of directors saw no early resolution to the labor talks, in Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' opinion. We believe the board wanted to preserve the company's financial resources for reorganization. The decision also represents a change in strategy: CEO Gerard Arpey, who had stated
