The origin of American Airlines can be traced back to times of the Second World War. A group of over 80-82 independent air carriers came together under the umbrella of American Airways. A common brand used by a number of independent carriers, American Airways included Southern Air Transport in Texas, Southern Air Fast Express (SAFE) in the western US, Universal Aviation in the mid-west, Thompson Aeronautical Services and Colonial Air Transport in the northeast. It was on 25th January 25 1930 that American Airways came to be incorporated as a single company. It was based in New York and operated with routes from Boston, New York and Chicago to Dallas, and from Dallas to Los Angeles. Four years later, in 1934, American Airways Company was acquired by E.L. Cord, which gave it the name of 'American Airlines' (AA). Sometime later AA became owner of the world's first airline lounge at the new LaGuardia Airport (LGA). Since then, it has only grown by leaps and bounds.
Today, American Airlines is one of the leading airlines of not only the USA, rather the whole world. In fact, it is the largest airline in the world, in terms of passenger miles transported and passenger fleet size. At the same time, it occupies the, second position in aircraft operated (behind FedEx Express) and in operating revenues (behind Air France-KLM). The headquarters of the airlines are located in Fort Worth, Texas. It is a member of International Air Transport Association (IATA), an organization which represents the airline industry.
Airbus 300-600R, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 757-200WL, Boeing 767-200ER, Boeing 767-300ER, Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 787-9, McDonnell Douglas MD-82, McDonnell Douglas MD-83 are some of the aircrafts in the fleet of the airline but over 100 new aircrafts of the latest technology is due to replace the old ones in 2018.
American Airlines covers more than 250 destinations and flies to almost 50 countries in the world. It is the only American air service with flights scheduled to Bolivia, Dominica, Grenada, Anguilla, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay. It offers non-stop services from/to Miami to Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte in Brazil and Panama City. The air service also provides non-stop service from Chicago to Moscow and Chicago to Beijing. The airlines also expanded its services to Ireland, India and China. It launched its Chicago to Delhi service and Chicago to Shanghai service in 2005 and 2006 respectively.