Basis of Presentation and Recent Accounting Pronouncements (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of American Airlines Group Inc. (we, us, our and similar terms, or AAG) should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of AAG and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. AAG’s principal subsidiary is American Airlines, Inc. (American). All significant intercompany transactions have been eliminated.

On December 9, 2013, a subsidiary of AMR Corporation (AMR) merged with and into US Airways Group, Inc. (US Airways Group), a Delaware corporation, which survived as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AAG, and AAG emerged from Chapter 11 (the Merger). Upon closing of the Merger and emergence from Chapter 11, AMR changed its name to American Airlines Group Inc. On December 30, 2015, in order to simplify AAG’s internal corporate structure, US Airways Group merged with and into AAG, with AAG as the surviving corporation. Immediately thereafter, US Airways, Inc. (US Airways), a wholly-owned subsidiary of US Airways Group, merged with and into American, with American as the surviving corporation.

Management believes that all adjustments necessary for the fair presentation of results, consisting of normally recurring items, have been included in the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements for the interim periods presented. The preparation of financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP) requires management to make certain estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements. Actual results could differ from those estimates. The most significant areas of judgment relate to passenger revenue recognition, impairment of goodwill, impairment of long-lived and intangible assets, the loyalty program, valuation allowance for deferred tax assets, as well as pension and retiree medical and other postretirement benefits.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Standards Effective for 2018 Reporting Periods

Effective January 1, 2018, we adopted the accounting pronouncements described below.

ASU 2014-09: Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606) (the New Revenue Standard)

The New Revenue Standard applies to all companies that enter into contracts with customers to transfer goods or services. We adopted the New Revenue Standard using the full retrospective method, which resulted in the recast of prior reporting periods.

The adoption of the New Revenue Standard impacted our accounting for outstanding mileage credits earned through travel by AAdvantage loyalty program members. There was no change in accounting for sales of mileage credits to co-branded card or other partners. Prior to the adoption of the New Revenue Standard, we used the incremental cost method to account for the portion of our loyalty program liability related to mileage credits earned through travel, which were valued based on the estimated incremental cost of carrying one additional passenger. The New Revenue Standard required us to change our policy to the deferred revenue method and apply a relative selling price approach whereby a portion of each passenger ticket sale attributable to mileage credits earned is deferred and recognized in passenger revenue upon future mileage redemption. The value of the earned mileage credits is materially greater under the deferred revenue method than the value attributed to these mileage credits under the incremental cost method.

The New Revenue Standard also required certain reclassifications, principally the reclassification of certain ancillary revenues previously classified and reported as other revenue to passenger revenue and as applicable to cargo revenue. Additionally, the New Revenue Standard required a gross presentation on the face of our condensed consolidated statement of operations for certain revenues and expenses that had previously been presented on a net basis.

See recast condensed consolidated statement of operations data for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 and recast consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2017 presented below for the effects of adoption.

ASU 2017-07: Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost (the New Retirement Standard)

The New Retirement Standard required all components of our net periodic benefit cost (income), with the exception of service cost, previously reported within operating expenses as salaries, wages and benefits, to be reclassified and reported within nonoperating income (expense). The New Retirement Standard was applied retrospectively, which resulted in the recast of each prior reporting period presented. The adoption of the New Retirement Standard had no impact on pre-tax income or net income reported.

See recast condensed consolidated statement of operations data for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 presented below for the effects of adoption.

ASU 2016-01: Financial Instruments - Overall (Subtopic 825-10)

This ASU made several modifications to Subtopic 825-10, including the elimination of the available-for-sale classification of equity investments, and it required equity investments with readily determinable fair values to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income. This standard was adopted prospectively as of January 1, 2018 and resulted in a $77 million cumulative effect adjustment credit to retained earnings related to our investment in China Southern Airlines Company Limited (China Southern Airlines), which was previously accounted for under the cost method.

ASU 2016-18: Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Restricted Cash

This ASU required that the change in total cash, cash at beginning of period and cash at end of period on the statement of cash flows include restricted cash and also requires companies who report cash and restricted cash separately on the balance sheet to reconcile those amounts to the statement of cash flows. This standard was applied retrospectively, which resulted in the recast of the prior reporting period in the statement of cash flows. For the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, $11 million and $104 million, respectively, of restricted cash is included in the total of cash and restricted cash balance at the end of period. A reconciliation of cash and restricted cash from our condensed consolidated statement of cash flows to the amounts reported within our condensed consolidated balance sheet is also included in a table below our condensed consolidated statement of cash flows.

Impacts to Prior Period Results

The effects of adoption of the New Revenue Standard and New Retirement Standard to our condensed consolidated statement of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 were as follows (in millions, except per share amounts):



				New Revenue Standard							New Retirement Standard
Three Months Ended September 30, 2017	As Reported			Deferred Revenue Method		Ancillary Revenue Reclassifications			Gross Versus Net Presentation		Reclassifications			As Recast
Operating revenues:
Passenger	$	9,377		$	59	$	651		$	9	$	—		$	10,096
Cargo	200			—		10			13		—			223
Other	1,301			—		(661		)	6		—			646
Total operating revenues	10,878			59		—			28		—			10,965
Total operating expenses	9,646			—		—			28		35			9,709
Operating income	1,232			59		—			—		(35		)	1,256
Total nonoperating expense, net	(228		)	—		—			—		35			(193		)
Income before income taxes	1,004			59		—			—		—			1,063
Income tax provision	380			22		—			—		—			402
Net income	$	624		$	37	$	—		$	—	$	—		$	661
Diluted earnings per common share	$	1.28												$	1.36



				New Revenue Standard							New Retirement Standard
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017	As Reported			Deferred Revenue Method		Ancillary Revenue Reclassifications			Gross Versus Net Presentation		Reclassifications			As Recast
Operating revenues:
Passenger	$	27,114		$	328	$	1,976		$	29	$	—		$	29,447
Cargo	568			—		31			34		—			633
Other	3,924			—		(2,007		)	14		—			1,931
Total operating revenues	31,606			328		—			77		—			32,011
Total operating expenses	28,238			—		—			77		104			28,419
Operating income	3,368			328		—			—		(104		)	3,592
Total nonoperating expense, net	(709		)	—		—			—		104			(605		)
Income before income taxes	2,659			328		—			—		—			2,987
Income tax provision	998			124		—			—		—			1,122
Net income	$	1,661		$	204	$	—		$	—	$	—		$	1,865
Diluted earnings per common share	$	3.35												$	3.76

The effects of adoption of the New Revenue Standard to our December 31, 2017 consolidated balance sheet are as follows (in millions):



	As Reported		New Revenue Standard			As Recast
Deferred tax asset	$	427	$	1,389		$	1,816
Air traffic liability	3,978		64			4,042
Current loyalty program liability	2,791		330			3,121
Noncurrent loyalty program liability	—		5,701			5,701
Total stockholders' equity (deficit)	3,926		(4,706		)	(780		)

Standards Effective for 2019 Reporting Periods

ASU 2016-02: Leases (Topic 842) (the New Lease Standard)

The New Lease Standard requires lessees to recognize a lease liability and a right-of-use asset on the balance sheet and aligns many of the underlying principles of the new lessor model with those in the New Revenue Standard. The New Lease Standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, "Leases (Topic 842) - Targeted Improvements," which provides entities an optional transition method to apply the New Lease Standard prospectively at the date of adoption instead of recasting prior reporting periods. If this optional transition method is elected, an entity would recognize a cumulative-effect adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings in the period of adoption.

We will adopt the New Lease Standard effective January 1, 2019. We are currently evaluating how the adoption of the New Lease Standard will impact our consolidated financial statements. Interpretations are on-going and could have a material impact on our implementation of the New Lease Standard. Currently, we expect that the adoption of the New Lease Standard will have a material impact on our consolidated balance sheet due to the recognition of right-of-use assets and lease liabilities principally for certain leases currently accounted for as operating leases.

ASU 2018-02: Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income

This ASU provides financial statement preparers with an option to reclassify stranded tax effects within accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings due to the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate change as a result of H.R. 1, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the 2017 Tax Act). The amount of the reclassification is the difference between the amount initially charged or credited directly to other comprehensive income at the previously enacted U.S. federal corporate income tax rate that remains in accumulated other comprehensive income and the amount that would have been charged or credited directly to other comprehensive income using the newly enacted U.S. federal corporate income tax rate, excluding the effect of any valuation allowance previously charged to income from continuing operations. This standard is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and early adoption is permitted. We expect we will adopt this standard effective January 1, 2019. The adoption of the standard may impact tax amounts stranded in accumulated other comprehensive income related to our pension and retiree medical and other postretirement benefit plans.

American Airlines, Inc. [Member]

New Accounting Pronouncements or Change in Accounting Principle [Line Items]

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of American Airlines, Inc. (American) should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements contained in American’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. American is the principal wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group Inc. (AAG). All significant intercompany transactions have been eliminated.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Standards Effective for 2018 Reporting Periods

Effective January 1, 2018, American adopted the accounting pronouncements described below.

ASU 2014-09: Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606) (the New Revenue Standard)

The New Revenue Standard applies to all companies that enter into contracts with customers to transfer goods or services. American adopted the New Revenue Standard using the full retrospective method, which resulted in the recast of prior reporting periods.

The adoption of the New Revenue Standard impacted American’s accounting for outstanding mileage credits earned through travel by AAdvantage loyalty program members. There was no change in accounting for sales of mileage credits to co-branded card or other partners. Prior to the adoption of the New Revenue Standard, American used the incremental cost method to account for the portion of its loyalty program liability related to mileage credits earned through travel, which were valued based on the estimated incremental cost of carrying one additional passenger. The New Revenue Standard required American to change its policy to the deferred revenue method and apply a relative selling price approach whereby a portion of each passenger ticket sale attributable to mileage credits earned is deferred and recognized in passenger revenue upon future mileage redemption. The value of the earned mileage credits is materially greater under the deferred revenue method than the value attributed to these mileage credits under the incremental cost method.

The New Revenue Standard also required certain reclassifications, principally the reclassification of certain ancillary revenues previously classified and reported as other revenue to passenger revenue and as applicable to cargo revenue. Additionally, the New Revenue Standard required a gross presentation on the face of American’s condensed consolidated statement of operations for certain revenues and expenses that had previously been presented on a net basis.

ASU 2017-07: Compensation - Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost (the New Retirement Standard)

The New Retirement Standard required all components of American’s net periodic benefit cost (income), with the exception of service cost, previously reported within operating expenses as salaries, wages and benefits, to be reclassified and reported within nonoperating income (expense). The New Retirement Standard was applied retrospectively, which resulted in the recast of each prior reporting period presented. The adoption of the New Retirement Standard had no impact on pre-tax income or net income reported.

See recast condensed consolidated statement of operations data for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 presented below for the effects of adoption.

ASU 2016-01: Financial Instruments - Overall (Subtopic 825-10)

This ASU made several modifications to Subtopic 825-10, including the elimination of the available-for-sale classification of equity investments, and it required equity investments with readily determinable fair values to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income. This standard was adopted prospectively as of January 1, 2018 and resulted in a $77 million cumulative effect adjustment credit to retained earnings related to American's investment in China Southern Airlines Company Limited (China Southern Airlines), which was previously accounted for under the cost method.

ASU 2016-18: Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Restricted Cash

This ASU required that the change in total cash, cash at beginning of period and cash at end of period on the statement of cash flows include restricted cash and also requires companies who report cash and restricted cash separately on the balance sheet to reconcile those amounts to the statement of cash flows. This standard was applied retrospectively, which resulted in the recast of the prior reporting period in the statement of cash flows. For the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, $11 million and $104 million, respectively, of restricted cash is included in the total of cash and restricted cash balance at the end of period. A reconciliation of cash and restricted cash from American's condensed consolidated statement of cash flows to the amounts reported within its condensed consolidated balance sheet is also included in a table below its condensed consolidated statement of cash flows.

Impacts to Prior Period Results

The effects of adoption of the New Revenue Standard and New Retirement Standard to American’s condensed consolidated statement of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 were as follows (in millions):



				New Revenue Standard							New Retirement Standard
Three Months Ended September 30, 2017	As Reported			Deferred Revenue Method		Ancillary Revenue Reclassifications			Gross Versus Net Presentation		Reclassifications			As Recast
Operating revenues:
Passenger	$	9,377		$	59	$	651		$	9	$	—		$	10,096
Cargo	200			—		10			13		—			223
Other	1,298			—		(661		)	6		—			643
Total operating revenues	10,875			59		—			28		—			10,962
Total operating expenses	9,650			—		—			28		35			9,713
Operating income	1,225			59		—			—		(35		)	1,249
Total nonoperating expense, net	(181		)	—		—			—		35			(146		)
Income before income taxes	1,044			59		—			—		—			1,103
Income tax provision	395			22		—			—		—			417
Net income	$	649		$	37	$	—		$	—	$	—		$	686



				New Revenue Standard							New Retirement Standard
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017	As Reported			Deferred Revenue Method		Ancillary Revenue Reclassifications			Gross Versus Net Presentation		Reclassifications			As Recast
Operating revenues:
Passenger	$	27,114		$	328	$	1,976		$	29	$	—		$	29,447
Cargo	568			—		31			34		—			633
Other	3,916			—		(2,007		)	14		—			1,923
Total operating revenues	31,598			328		—			77		—			32,003
Total operating expenses	28,242			—		—			77		104			28,423
Operating income	3,356			328		—			—		(104		)	3,580
Total nonoperating expense, net	(572		)	—		—			—		104			(468		)
Income before income taxes	2,784			328		—			—		—			3,112
Income tax provision	1,046			124		—			—		—			1,170
Net income	$	1,738		$	204	$	—		$	—	$	—		$	1,942

The effects of adoption of the New Revenue Standard to American’s December 31, 2017 consolidated balance sheet are as follows (in millions):



	As Reported		New Revenue Standard			As Recast
Deferred tax asset	$	682	$	1,389		$	2,071
Air traffic liability	3,978		64			4,042
Current loyalty program liability	2,791		330			3,121
Noncurrent loyalty program liability	—		5,701			5,701
Total stockholder’s equity (deficit)	14,594		(4,706		)	9,888

Standards Effective for 2019 Reporting Periods

ASU 2016-02: Leases (Topic 842) (the New Lease Standard)

American will adopt the New Lease Standard effective January 1, 2019. American is currently evaluating how the adoption of the New Lease Standard will impact its consolidated financial statements. Interpretations are on-going and could have a material impact on American's implementation of the New Lease Standard. Currently, American expects that the adoption of the New Lease Standard will have a material impact on its consolidated balance sheet due to the recognition of right-of-use assets and lease liabilities principally for certain leases currently accounted for as operating leases.

ASU 2018-02: Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income

This ASU provides financial statement preparers with an option to reclassify stranded tax effects within accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings due to the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate change as a result of H.R. 1, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the 2017 Tax Act). The amount of the reclassification is the difference between the amount initially charged or credited directly to other comprehensive income at the previously enacted U.S. federal corporate income tax rate that remains in accumulated other comprehensive income and the amount that would have been charged or credited directly to other comprehensive income using the newly enacted U.S. federal corporate income tax rate, excluding the effect of any valuation allowance previously charged to income from continuing operations. This standard is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and early adoption is permitted. American expects it will adopt this standard effective January 1, 2019. The adoption of the standard may impact tax amounts stranded in accumulated other comprehensive income related to American's pension and retiree medical and other postretirement benefit plans.