AA and other large businesses contract this stuff out. There's lots of this nuisance underbrush because of the urban myths on places such as FT to the effect that large companies default.

Worth remembering that they don't need to show up, they just need to answer the complaint. Now, the plaintiff has to spend a day hanging around for a trial.

The question to AA isn't whether it costs them more to defend any one of these parasitic lawsuits, it's that by answering, AA sends a signal that this isn't as simple as the urban mythers say it is. And, sometimes they actually get sanctions for frivolous lawsuits.