American Airlines (AAL)

Risks

• Downturns in economic conditions could adversely affect our business.
• We will need to obtain sufficient financing or other capital to operate successfully.
• Our high level of debt and other obligations may limit our ability to fund general corporate requirements and obtain additional financing, may limit our flexibility in responding to competitive developments and cause our business to be vulnerable to adverse economic and industry conditions.
• We have significant pension and other postretirement benefit funding obligations, which may adversely affect our liquidity, results of operations and financial condition.
• If our financial condition worsens, provisions in our credit card processing and other commercial agreements may adversely affect our liquidity.
• The loss of key personnel upon whom we depend to operate our business or the inability to attract and develop additional qualified personnel could adversely affect our business.
• Our business has been and will continue to be affected by many changing economic and other conditions beyond our control, including global events that affect travel behavior, and our results of operations could be volatile and fluctuate due to seasonality.
• Union disputes, employee strikes and other labor-related disruptions, or our inability to otherwise maintain labor costs at competitive levels may adversely affect our operations and financial performance.
• If we encounter problems with any of our third-party regional operators or third-party service providers, our operations could be adversely affected by a resulting decline in revenue or negative public perception about our services.
• Any damage to our reputation or brand image could adversely affect our business or financial results.
• We are at risk of losses and adverse publicity stemming from any public incident involving our company, our people or our brand, including any accident or other public incident involving our personnel or aircraft, or the personnel or aircraft of our regional, codeshare or joint business operators.
• Changes to our business model that are designed to increase revenues may not be successful and may cause operational difficulties or decreased demand.
• Our intellectual property rights, particularly our branding rights, are valuable, and any inability to protect them may adversely affect our business and financial results.
• We may be a party to litigation in the normal course of business or otherwise, which could affect our financial position and liquidity.
• Our ability to utilize our NOLs and other carryforwards may be limited.
• New U.S. tax legislation may adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
• We have a significant amount of goodwill, which is assessed for impairment at least annually. In addition, we may never realize the full value of our intangible assets or long-lived assets, causing us to record material impairment charges.
• The commercial relationships that we have with other companies, including any related equity investments, may not produce the returns or results we expect.
• Our business is very dependent on the price and availability of aircraft fuel. Continued periods of high volatility in fuel costs, increased fuel prices or significant disruptions in the supply of aircraft fuel could have a significant negative impact on consumer demand, our operating results and liquidity.
• Our business is subject to extensive government regulation, which may result in increases in our costs, disruptions to our operations, limits on our operating flexibility, reductions in the demand for air travel, and competitive disadvantages.
• We operate a global business with international operations that are subject to economic and political instability and have been, and in the future may continue to be, adversely affected by numerous events, circumstances or government actions beyond our control.
• We may be adversely affected by conflicts overseas or terrorist attacks; the travel industry continues to face ongoing security concerns.
• We are subject to many forms of environmental and noise regulation and may incur substantial costs as a result.
• A higher than normal number of pilot retirements, more stringent duty time regulations, increased flight hour requirement for commercial airline pilots, reductions in the number of military pilots entering the commercial workforce, increased training requirements and other factors have caused a shortage of pilots that could materially adversely affect our business.
• We depend on a limited number of suppliers for aircraft, aircraft engines and parts.
• Delays in scheduled aircraft deliveries or other loss of anticipated fleet capacity, and failure of new aircraft to perform as expected, may adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
• We rely heavily on technology and automated systems to operate our business, and any failure of these technologies or systems could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
• Evolving data security and privacy requirements could increase our costs, and any significant data security or privacy incident could disrupt our operations, harm our reputation, expose us to legal risks and otherwise materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
• We rely on third-party distribution channels and must manage effectively the costs, rights and functionality of these channels.
• If we are unable to obtain and maintain adequate facilities and infrastructure throughout our system and, at some airports, adequate slots, we may be unable to operate our existing flight schedule and to expand or change our route network in the future, which may have a material adverse impact on our operations.
• Interruptions or disruptions in service at one of our key facilities could have a material adverse impact on our operations.
• Increases in insurance costs or reductions in insurance coverage may adversely impact our operations and financial results.
• The airline industry is heavily taxed.
• We have ceased making repurchases of our common stock and paying dividends on our common stock as required by the CARES Act, the PSP Extension Law and the ARP. Following the end of those restrictions, if we do decide to make repurchases of or pay dividends on our common stock, we cannot guarantee that we will continue to do so or that our capital deployment program will enhance long-term stockholder value.
• AAG’s Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws include provisions that limit voting and acquisition and disposition of our equity interests and specify an exclusive forum for certain stockholder disputes.
• Certain provisions of AAG’s Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws make it difficult for stockholders to change the composition of our Board of Directors and may discourage takeover attempts that some of our stockholders might consider beneficial.
• The issuance or sale of shares of our common stock, rights to acquire shares of our common stock, or warrants issued to Treasury under the CARES Act, the PSP Extension Law, the ARP, PSP1, PSP2 and PSP3, could depress the trading price of our common stock and the Convertible Notes.