Friday March 10, 3:51 pm Eastern Time

Company Press Release

SOURCE: American Airlines

American Airlines Flies Boeing 777 Across Polar Route to Hong Kong

FORT WORTH, Texas, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- An American Airlines Boeing 777 flew over the North Pole on a flight from Chicago to Hong Kong Monday, the first time a commercial airline had flown a twin-engine aircraft over a polar route.

Flight time from Chicago to Hong Kong was 15 hours, 13 minutes, which is about the same flying time for other commercial flights using four-engine aircraft.

The aircraft returned from Hong Kong Wednesday via a North Pacific routing to Dallas/Fort Worth, setting a record of 13 hours, 27 minutes because the route had never been flown before by a commercial aircraft.

American is competing with other U.S. airlines for new routes from the United States to China.

The Chicago-Hong Kong flight took Polar Route 2 and came within 37 nautical miles of the North Pole. The polar routes are a little longer -- 7200 nautical miles versus 7100 nautical miles -- than the traditional North Pacific routes, but are much less affected by headwinds. A polar route could reduce the flying time by as much as two hours.

The flight from Chicago headed north over Canada, crossed a remote portion of Siberia, continued southeast across Mongolia and joined a Chinese airway in a southwesterly direction to Hong Kong.

Two Russian government officials were aboard the flight, which was under Russian air traffic control for about five hours. The flight also crossed Mongolian and Chinese airspace.

Flying the aircraft were Capts. Tom McBroom of Flight Operations Technical and Gene Richardson, 777 fleet manager. They were backed up by Capts. John Chambers of FOT and Michael Jurlina, 777 fleet supervisor.

``It was important for American Airlines to demonstrate that the polar routes are viable for twin-engine aircraft,'' said Bob Kudwa, vice president of flight. ``We are very confident regarding the performance and reliability of the Boeing 777 and the Rolls-Royce Trent engines. This flight should dispel any concerns that have surfaced about these operations.''

Current AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR - news) news releases can be accessed via the Internet. The address is http://www.amrcorp.com/corpcomm.htm.

SOURCE: American Airlines