The prototype DST (Douglas Sleeper Transport) first flew on December 17, 1935, the 32nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

[13] American Airlines inaugurated passenger service on June 26, 1936, with simultaneous flights from Newark, New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois.

[19] On August 5, 1971, the DC-10 entered commercial service with American Airlines on a round-trip flight between Los Angeles and Chicago.

Aer Lingus, which shares ownership with British Airways and Iberia, has received regulatory approval to join this joint venture.

[92][93][94] In 2019, American Airlines received regulatory approval to enter into a joint business relationship with Qantas covering flights between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

[106] As with the airline's other premium cabins, Flagship First offers wider food and beverage options, larger seats, and lounge access at certain airports.

[113] American retained Main Cabin Extra when the new Premium Economy product entered service in late 2016.

[110] American Airlines marketed increased legroom in economy class as "More Room Throughout Coach", also referred to as "MRTC", starting in February 2000.

Basic Economy consists of a Main Cabin ticket with numerous restrictions, including waiting until check-in for a seat assignment, no upgrades or refunds, and boarding in the last group.

[117] In May 2017, American announced it would add more seats to some of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets and reduce overall legroom in the basic economy class.

This "Project Oasis" seating configuration has since been expanded to all 737 MAX 8s as well as standard Boeing 737-800 and non-transcontinental Airbus A321 jets.

This configuration has been considered unpopular with passengers, especially American's frequent flyers, as the new seats have less padding, less legroom, and no seatback entertainment.

[125] In December 2024, it was announced that American would be cutting ties with Barclays and would instead be rolling members into its partnership with Citigroup starting in 2026.

[128][better source needed] The list of admirals included many celebrities, politicians, and other VIPs, as well as more "ordinary" customers who had been particularly loyal to the airline.

During the airport's construction, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had an upper-level lounge for press conferences and business meetings.

Because it was illegal to sell alcohol in Virginia at the time, the club contained refrigerators for the use of its members so they could store their liquor at the airport.

Robert "Bob" Crandall later justified the distinctive natural metal finish by noting that less paint reduced the aircraft's weight, thus saving fuel costs.

[167] Doug Parker, the incoming CEO, indicated that the new livery could be short-lived, stating that "[the] only reason this is an issue now is that they just did it right in the middle [of the merger], which kind of makes it confusing, so that allows us, actually, to decide if we are going to do something different because we have so many airplanes to paint".

[168] The current logo and livery have had mixed criticism, with Design Shack editor Joshua Johnson writing that they "boldly and proudly communicate the concepts of American pride and freedom wrapped into a shape that instantly makes you think about an airplane",[169] and AskThePilot.com author Patrick Smith describing the logo as a linoleum knife poking through a shower curtain'.

[170] Later in January 2013, Bloomberg asked the designer of the 1968 American Airlines logo (Massimo Vignelli) on his opinion over the rebranding.

[173] As of September 2019, American has heritage aircraft for Piedmont, PSA, America West, US Airways, Reno Air, TWA, and AirCal in their fleet.

The airline has persistently performed poorly in the areas of losing checked luggage and bumping passengers due to oversold flights.

[177] The main representatives of key groups of employees are: In 1942, American Airlines established Sky Chefs, a wholly-owned subsidiary, as a catering company to serve their fleet.

[185][186] Sky Chefs became a subsidiary of Onex Food Services Inc.[187][citation needed] Since 2001, it has been fully owned by the LSG Group.

[190] In 1980, American Airlines sold Americana Hotels to Bass Brothers Enterprises of Fort Worth, Texas.

[191] Between October 1993 to July 1998, American Airlines was repeatedly cited for using high-sulfur fuel in motor vehicles at 10 major airports around the country, a violation of the Clean Air Act.

[192] In 1981, as a means of creating revenue in a period of loss-making, American Airlines offered a lifetime pass of unlimited travel for the initial cost of $250,000.

[208] As of January 2025, American Airlines has had almost sixty aircraft hull losses, beginning with the crash of a Ford 5-AT-C Trimotor in August 1931.

[213] American Airlines reported total CO2e emissions (direct and indirect) for the twelve months ending December 31, 2020, at 20,092 Kt (-21,347 /-51.5% y-o-y).

[215] In November 2023, American Airlines purchased the first carbon credit contract (for 10,000 metric tons of CO2 sequestered at $100 per ton) from Graphyte, a carbon removal startup company invested in by Breakthrough Energy that compresses sawdust, tree bark, rice hulls, plant stalks, and other agricultural waste into biomass bricks wrapped in a polymer barrier to prevent decomposition that are stored underground.