The carrier has confirmed itself as the buyer of two pairs of slots at Heathrow from SAS Scandinavian Airlines at the start of the year. It is widely believed that American Airlines paid around $75 million for them.
In its latest financial report, American Airlines’ president Robert Isom said the carrier had “moved quickly” to add two new slot pairs, adding that they would be used “to improve service to and from one of the world’s most important business markets”.
American Airlines also has the option of offering use of one or both slots to British Airways, with which it has a joint venture on transatlantic services.
American Airlines reported a pre-tax profit of $365 million for the first quarter of 2017, a big fall from last year’s $1.18 billion despite revenue rising slightly from $9.4 billion to $9.6 billion. Pre-tax profit margin fell from 11.8% to 3.8%.
