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American Airlines Needs to Provide Evidence Of Labor Costs

Direct News Source

Washington, DC - In statements today at the AMR shareholders meeting American Airlines executives asserted that based on analysis of airline industry labor contracts, it estimates that at the

beginning of 2010, the company's labor cost disadvantage as compared to its network competitors was about $600 million per year.

"It is a convenient time, while at the table negotiating with Flight Attendants, for the company to make this proclamation without providing supporting data," said Laura Glading, President of the
Association of Professional Flight Attendants, representing the 18,000 Flight Attendants at American Airlines. "I am disappointed that this has been reported as truth without looking at the numbers.

"American obviously believes if you say something over and over eventually it becomes true. It's time they come clean and show the world how they calculate these figures. We have said for a long-
time that their labor costs are not the highest in the industry but are in the middle," Glading continued.

"In its assessment of comparable labor costs American attempts to force fit the contracts of other carriers onto AA's workforce and operations. Labor contract provisions are ultimately tied to the unique operations and network of each individual carrier," said veteran airline economist Dan Akins. "American's analysis is fundamentally flawed and doesn't use industry standard analysis when calculating labor costs, and has other hidden service numbers in their cost projection."