V A N T A G E P O I N T
AMERICANWAY
JANUARY 1 2008
10
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at which to fly as well as what is the opti-
mumway todistribute thecargowecarry in
thebelliesofouraircraft.We’vechanged the
waywe taxi our planes, andwe’ve replaced
fossil-fuel burning with electric ground-
service equipment at many airports. Our
Fuel Smart initiatives—ofwhich these are
just a small sampling—havehelpedus en-
dure record fuel prices and have enabled
us to dramatically reduce our emissions.
In fact, from 2002 to 2006, we reduced
our annual greenhouse gas emissions by
1.6 million metric tons. We intend to re-
duceour carbon footprint evenmore in the
year to come, inpart through amajor fleet
refreshment we have launched, which we
thinkcan increaseouroverall fuel economy
by30percent by2025.
Weall havea stake in reducing theemis-
sions associatedwith air travel, andwe all
have a role to play. As youmay know, the
inadequacies of the U.S. air traffic control
system force airlines to fly very inefficient
routes, leading to tens ofmillions ofmetric
tonsofunnecessaryemissionseveryyear. In
fact, studies have shown that inefficiencies
in theATC systemare responsible for 10 to
15 percent of all the emissions from com-
mercial aviation. I hope you will join our
effort to reduce emissions by encouraging
yourrepresentatives inCongress tosupport
the modernization of our antiquated ATC
system.
Operatingaglobal airlinewill always re-
quire a lot of energy and resources. But I
believe we can accomplish our mission of
connecting theworldwhile livingup toour
core belief in environmental responsibility,
a topic I’ll discuss further in next month’s
column.
Thank you for flying with us today, and
happyNewYear!
DoingOurPart
Gerard J. Arpey
Chairman&CEO
AmericanAirlines
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Anewyear isuponus, and it’sasafebet that
one of the major themes running through
2008 will be environmental responsibility.
With that inmind, I’ll be devotingmy first
three columns of 2008 to the environmen-
tal issues we’re facing at AmericanAirlines
and to the thingswe’re doing to reduce our
impact on the environmentweall share.
One topic on a lot of people’s minds is
emissions and their potential impact on
global climate change. There is no avoiding
the fact that jet aircraft emit carbondioxide
andother greenhouse gases. But it’s impor-
tant to put our emissions in perspective.
Aviation today contributes about 3 percent
of all man-made carbon dioxide. Compare
that with automobiles, which contribute
18 percent, and cattle production, which
contributes 9 percent. Moreover, 80 per-
cent of the carbon dioxide we emit comes
from long-haul flights, for which no eco-
friendlier alternative exists. To illustrate, if
youwere to fly onAmerican— along with
200 or so other passengers — from New
York to Miami, the emissions attributable
toyour journeywouldbe far less than if you
were todrive, onyourown, ina carwithav-
eragegasmileage.
The greenhouse gases we emit are, of
course, a functionof the fuelweburn.Given
the soaring price of jet fuel in recent years,
we certainly don’t need to have our arms
twisted to embrace fuel conservation. At
American Airlines, we have become much
more fuel efficient in recent years. Through
a company-wide initiative called Fuel
Smart, we have found hundreds of ways to
reduce the amount of fuel we burn, both in
the air and on the ground. Among other
things, we have removed less-efficient air-
craft from our fleet, found creative ways to
reduce the amount of weight we carry, and
installedwinglets—extensionsat the tipsof
our wings, which reduce drag and increase
fuel efficiency—onhundreds of aircraft.
Wehavealsogottenbetteratdetermining
themost fuel-efficient speeds and altitudes
