American Airlines’ parent AMR Corp has unveiled plans to divest its wholly-owned regional American Eagle Airlines.
The company is evaluating a number of options for American Eagle’s divestiture, including a spin-off to shareholders, a sale to a third party or some other form of separation.
It expects to complete the transaction in 2008.
American Eagle will continue to act as a feeder to American under an air services agreement. However, the regional will also have the ability “to provide quality feed at competitive rates to other carriers”, says AMR chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey.
AMR last month revealed it was considering spinning off American’s frequent flyer program, AAdvantage, as well as American Eagle, as part of a hard look at how asset divestiture might be pursued to improve shareholder value.
“The decision comes after a careful and deliberate evaluation of the strategy that will best enable us to continue to create value for our shareholders,” Arpey now says.
“We have worked hard over the years to build a regional airline that is fully capable of standing on its own and is well positioned to pursue growth opportunities outside of the AMR corporate structure.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
