Posted on: Tuesday, September 25, 2001

The September 11th attack
AMR chairman cuts own salary, buys stock

Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — Trying to restore confidence in the airline, American Airlines chairman Donald J. Carty said yesterday he has bought 40,000 shares of stock and would give up his salary for the rest of the year.

American announced last week that it would lay off at least 20,000 workers in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that undercut already weak demand for air travel. The company's stock was battered on Wall Street.

Congress came to the aid of the airlines at week's end, approving a multibillion-dollar aid package after lobbying by Carty and other airlines chiefs.

Carty said the government aid and layoffs "are not enough to save the company. Our passengers have not come back to us yet."

Occupancy on American's planes is "still very, very low," he said. "This will likely be another tough week for us, and I dare say it won't be our last tough week together either. But better days are coming. I strongly believe in the future of American, so much so that late last week I bought 40,000 shares of AMR stock on the open market."

AMR shares rose 40 cents to close at $18.30 in trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. At Friday's closing price, Carty's 40,000 shares would have cost $716,000. Carty, however, did not disclose when he bought the shares or their price.

Carty's annual salary is $772,500, spokesman Al Becker said. In 2000 Carty earned $772,500 and received a bonus of $1.375 million.

Carty said American employees would all have to sacrifice to help the carrier, which was losing money even before the attacks.

"And with that in mind ... I will forgo any personal compensation, including my salary, from now until the end of the year," he said.

Carty said if other employees take pay cuts, the company would put 20 percent of the savings into an educational fund for the children of American pilots and flight attendants who were killed when two hijacked American planes crashed — one into the World Trade Center in New York, the other into the Pentagon.

Some of the money might also be used to deal with "unique hardship cases" stemming from the layoffs, he said.