IATA Code: AA ICAO Code: AAL Known As: American Airlines Full Name: American Airlines Country: USA Hubs: Dallas/Fort Worth, DFW; Chicago, ORD; Miami Callsign: American Web Site: www.aa.com History: American Airlines developed from a conglomeration of about 82 small airlines through a series of corporate acquisitions and reorganizations. Initially, the name American Airways was used as a common brand by a number of independent air carriers, including Southern Air Transport in Texas, Southern Air Fast Express (SAFE) in the western US, Universal Aviation in the Midwest and Colonial Air Transport in the Northeast. On January 25, 1930, American Airways was incorporated as a single company operating its routes with Fokker and Ford Trimotors. In 1934, American Airways Company found itself in financial straits and was acquired by E.L. Cord, who renamed the company American Airlines and hired Texas businessman C.R. Smith to run it. Smith worked closely with Douglas to develop the DC-3, which American Airlines started flying in 1936. With the DC-3, American began to brand itself using nautical terms, calling its aircraft "Flagships" and establishing the "Admirals Club," an honorary club for valued passengers. The DC-3s had a four-star "admiral's pennant" which would fly outside the cockpit window while the aircraft was parked, one of the most well-known images of the airline at the time. In the late 1940s, American launched an international subsidiary, American Overseas Airlines, to serve Europe. However, AOA was sold to rival Pan Am in 1950. American launched another subsidiary around the same time, American Airlines de Mexico S.A., to operate flights to Mexico, and built several airports in northern Mexico to serve as diversion points for aircraft bound for Mexico City. American later introduced the first transcontinental jet service on January 25, 1959 with the introduction of the 707 "Astrojet." During the 1970s, American acquired its first Boeing 747s and low passenger loads at the time led American to equip many of its 747s with Wurlitzer pianos in the main cabin. Following the Transpacific Route Case, AA began 747 flights to Australia and New Zealand, although it traded these routes to Pan Am in 1975 in exchange for routes to the Caribbean. The 747s were soon moved to cargo service and replaced in passenger service with DC-10s. Incidentally, the current AA logo was first used on Boeing 747s. American's corporate headquarters was relocated from New York City to Fort Worth, Texas in 1979, where American opened a new corporate campus on the site of the closed Greater Southwest International Airport, just south of the new Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The airline changed its routing to a hub-and-spoke system starting in 1981, opening its first hubs at DFW and Chicago O'Hare. American fueled expansion by acquiring assets from other carriers, or the carrier themselves: Trans Caribbean Airways in 1971; Central and South American routes from Eastern Air Lines in 1990; Reno Air in February 1999 (operations integrated by August 31, 1999); and Trans World Airlines in April 2001. In the wake of the TWA merger and the roughly concurrent September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, American encountered financial difficulty, but thanks to aggressive cost-cutting measures had returned to profitability by 2005.