In 1986, AMR announced that it would be acquiring Air California's parent company, ACI Holdings, for $225 million.

The decision came as the airline tried to "achieve a cost and debt structure that is industry competitive and thereby assure its long-term viability and ability to continue delivering a world-class travel experience for its customers", the company said in a statement.

The Air Transport Association group said that unofficial research states that AMR was the 100th airline company to go into bankruptcy protection since 1990.

[11] On December 2, 2011, AMR Corporation was replaced by Alaska Air Group in the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

[16] US Airways told some American Airlines creditors that merging the two carriers could yield more than $1.5 billion a year in added revenue and cost savings.

Reports were the possible merger partners AMR was looking at were, US Airways, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, Frontier and Virgin America.

"[20] On February 14, 2013, AMR and US Airways Group officially announced that the two companies would merge to form the largest airline in the world.

AMR sponsors the AMR/American Airlines Foundation, a grant-making foundation which supports charitable causes in cities served by AA, in particular the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Chicago, Illinois, Miami, Florida, Saint Louis, Missouri, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

When AMR Corporation requested Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, LON6526 was one of the eight owned properties the company declared.

[33] Richard Tilton, a lawyer with specialization in bankruptcy and the director of Sheldon Good & Co., compared the property to the "corporate jets that the executives at GM and Chrysler were forced to give up", and predicted that such "symbols of corporate suite excess" were unlikely to survive the Chapter 11 reorganization.