American airlines’ bankruptcy scam

From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 3 December

American Airlines has filed for bankruptcy, although this apparently will not affect its orders for 260 Airbus A320s and 200 Boeing 737s announced in July.

US bankruptcy law enables companies to write off their debts and obligations to employees while still continuing to trade. AA’s rival Delta filed for bankruptcy a few years ago, which enabled it, for example, to rewrite its employment contracts, increasing the workload on pilots.

As a result of the changes it was thus able to effect, its costs per available seat mile now come out as only 90 percent of AA’s, which naturally put the latter at a competitive disadvantage.