Debt - Components of Long-Term Debt - 2013 Citicorp Credit Facility (Detail)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($)
Secured Debt [Member] \| Credit Facility, Tranche B-1, Citicorp 2013 [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Long-term debt and capital lease obligations	$ 980,000,000
Secured Debt [Member] \| Credit Facility, Tranche B-1, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| American Airlines, Inc. [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Long-term debt and capital lease obligations	980,000,000
Secured Debt [Member] \| Credit Facility, Tranche B-2, Citicorp 2013 [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Long-term debt and capital lease obligations	588,000,000
Secured Debt [Member] \| Credit Facility, Tranche B-2, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| American Airlines, Inc. [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Long-term debt and capital lease obligations	$ 588,000,000
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Applicable LIBOR floor rate	0.75%
Percent of initial principal payable in each annual installments	1.00%
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| US Airways Group [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Minimum unrestricted cash and cash equivalents required by lender	$ 2,000,000,000
Minimum unrestricted cash and cash equivalents subject to control agreements required by lender	$ 750,000,000
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| American Airlines, Inc. [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Applicable LIBOR floor rate	0.75%
Percent of initial principal payable in each annual installments	1.00%
Minimum unrestricted cash and cash equivalents required by lender	$ 2,000,000,000
Minimum unrestricted cash and cash equivalents subject to control agreements required by lender	$ 750,000,000
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| Tranche B-1 Term Loans [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt instrument, basis spread on variable rate	2.75%
Debt instrument, maturity date	May 23, 2019
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| Tranche B-1 Term Loans [Member] \| American Airlines, Inc. [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt instrument, basis spread on variable rate	2.75%
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| Tranche B-2 Term Loans [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt instrument, basis spread on variable rate	2.25%
Credit Facility, Citicorp 2013 [Member] \| Tranche B-2 Term Loans [Member] \| American Airlines, Inc. [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt instrument, basis spread on variable rate	2.25%

Debt instrument basis spread on LIBOR floor rate.

No definition available.

Name:	aal_DebtInstrumentBasisSpreadOnLIBORFloorRate
Namespace Prefix:	aal_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Debt instruments maturity date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	aal_DebtInstrumentsMaturityDate
Namespace Prefix:	aal_
Data Type:	xbrli:dateItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Minimum unrestricted cash and cash equivalents required by lender.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	aal_MinimumUnrestrictedCashAndCashEquivalentsRequiredByLender
Namespace Prefix:	aal_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Minimum unrestricted cash and cash equivalents subject to control agreements required by lender.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	aal_MinimumUnrestrictedCashAndCashEquivalentsSubjectToControlAgreementsRequiredByLender
Namespace Prefix:	aal_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percent of principal payable annual installments.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	aal_PercentOfPrincipalPayableAnnualInstallments
Namespace Prefix:	aal_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percentage points added to the reference rate to compute the variable rate on the debt instrument.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentBasisSpreadOnVariableRate1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of long-term debt before deduction of unamortized discount or premium. Includes, but is not limited to, notes payable, bonds payable, commercial loans, mortgage loans, convertible debt, subordinated debt and other types of debt, with initial maturities beyond one year or the normal operating cycle, if longer.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.22)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher SEC
-Name Regulation S-X (SX)
-Number 210
-Section 02
-Paragraph 20
-Article 5

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher SEC
-Name Regulation S-X (SX)
-Number 210
-Section 03
-Paragraph 16
-Article 9

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentCarryingAmount
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_LongtermDebtTypeAxis=us-gaap_SecuredDebtMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=aal_CreditFacilityTrancheBOneCiticorpTwoThousandAndThirteenMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	dei_LegalEntityAxis=us-gaap_SubsidiariesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=aal_CreditFacilityTrancheBTwoCiticorpTwoThousandAndThirteenMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_LongtermDebtTypeAxis=aal_CiticorpCreditFacilityTermLoanTwoThousandAndThirteenMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	dei_LegalEntityAxis=aal_USAirwaysGroupMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=aal_TrancheOneTermLoanFacilityMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=aal_TrancheTwoTermLoanFacilityMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: