Climate Lobbying Overview: American Airlines appear to have mixed engagement on climate change in 2020-21. The organization has communicated positive top-line support for a 1.5C global warming target and actively supported policies promoting sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). However, American appeared to support changing the global CORSIA offsetting scheme for aviation’s baseline date to 2019, reducing the emissions reduction potential of the regulation.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: American Airlines appears supportive of a 1.5 degree global warming target and a carbon neutral economy by 2050 in their 2020 ESG performance review report, released in 2021. In July 2021 American signed a joint letter to Congress expressing their support for Congress to pass “ambitious, durable climate policy” and describing the infrastructure bill as an “invaluable opportunity”. American also appears to use its support for global GHG regulations to oppose national and regional climate regulation. For example, in its 2020 ESG Report, American states that it continues to “advocate for CORSIA as the single approach for addressing emissions from international aviation”, at the expense of other more stringent regional or national policies.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: In its 2020 ESG report, American appeared to endorse a change in the baseline date of the global CORSIA offsetting scheme to include only 2019 emissions compared to an average of 2019-20 emissions, weakening its emissions reduction potential. American’s 2020 ESG report further indicates that American is unsupportive of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as it is used as an example of “a patchwork of complex regulatory requirements that will often affect global competitors differently and frequently offer no meaningful aviation environmental improvements”.

More positively, American appear to be actively advocating for policies promoting sustainable aviation fuels. In August 2021, American signed a joint letter to policymakers, advocating for a refundable SAF-specific blenders tax credit for SAFs achieving at least 50% lifecycle GHG emissions reductions. Bloomberg further reported on this advocacy in an August 2021 article. In their 2020 ESG performance review, released in 2021, American stated that they “welcomed the introduction of the Sustainable Skies Act” and further voiced their support for a SAF-specific tax credit. In October 2021, American also signed a joint letter by Ceres CEVA network, supporting strong US light duty fuel economy standards.

Positioning on Energy Transition: American appears supportive of increased sustainable aviation fuel use, but it is unclear if they support a future energy mix in line with IPCC guidelines. In a February 2021 American newsletter, American recognized that SAF is “an important tool to reduce aviation emissions”. In their 2020 ESG performance review, American seemed to support the role of zero-emissions hydrogen and e-fuels to decarbonize aviation, alongside the role of SAFs. However, in a February 2020 interview, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker appeared unsupportive of urgently transitioning aviation away from fossil fuels, stating support for synthetic fuels while emphasizing “the reality is that the airplanes are going to fly. And the more people that can be transported by efficient airplanes, the better that is for the environment”.

Industry Association Governance: American publicly disclosed a list of its memberships to industry associations on its website without disclosing its direct engagement with them on climate change, their climate policy positions, the company’s role within each association or a review of its alignment. In its 2021 CDP response American disclosed its membership to and engagement with International Air Transport Association (IATA), but failed to disclose membership to other climate relevant industry associations. Douglas Parker, the CEO, is on the board of directors for Airlines for America (A4A) and American is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce both of which have negatively and actively lobbied against US climate policy for aviation. Doug Parker is also a member of the Business Roundtable.