Washington - AMR Corp, whose American Airlines is the world's second-largest carrier, Wednesday said its second-quarter losses of 319 million dollars were kept down by new income from a checked-bag fee and falling fuel prices. Sales slid 21 per cent compared to the same period last year, to 4.89 billion dollars, but beat analyst's projections of 4.6 billion dollars, Bloomberg financial news service reported.
American Airlines started charging 15 dollars for the first piece of checked luggage in the second quarter last year. Its fuel costs dropped by 1 billion compared to last year.
AMR is the first major US airline company to announce quarterly results, with its peers all scheduled to report next week.
"The global recession kept a lot of would-be travelers at home," AMR chief executive officer Gerard Arpey said in a memo to employees. "While we have been able to keep our planes reasonably full, the competitive landscape prevented us from being able to charge fares sufficient for us to make money."
