Climate Lobbying Overview: American Airlines appear to have mixed engagement on climate change in 2020-22. 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, 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 October 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’s 2021 ESG report further stated that American is “collaborating” to advance policy solutions “needed to get to net zero”. However, American appears to use its support for global GHG regulations to oppose national and regional climate regulation. 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. Additionally, American’s 2022 10-K report, published in April 2022, acknowledged the risk of state-level, national or regional regulations for aviation “in the event that CORSIA does not come into force as expected”.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: American’s 2021 ESG report, published in 2022, appeared to endorse CORSIA’s goal “of achieving carbon-neutral growth in emissions after 2019”, suggesting support for weakening CORSIA’s baseline from 2019-20 emissions to 2019 emissions alone, despite that American “do not expect to be required to purchase carbon offset credits to comply with CORSIA through 2023” due to this change. American’s 2022 10-K report further acknowledged the risk of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and the French SAF mandate as an example of “a patchwork of complex regulatory requirements that could affect global competitors differently without offering meaningful aviation environmental improvements."

More positively, American appear to be actively advocating for policies promoting sustainable aviation fuels. In a July 2022 press release, American appeared supportive of federal and state-level legislation promoting SAFs and 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. In their 2020 ESG performance review, released in October 2021, American stated that they “welcomed the introduction of the Sustainable Skies Act” and further voiced their support for a SAF-specific tax credit, while American’s 2021 ESG report, published in 2022, advocated for “policy tools” to promote SAFs, without referring to the Sustainable Skies Act. In October 2021, American also signed a joint letter by Ceres, supporting strong US light duty fuel economy and GHG emissions standards for cars.

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, released in October 2021, and 2021 ESG Report, published in 2022, 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 serving 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. Richard Isom, 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. American’s CEO, Richard Isom, is also a member of the Business Roundtable.

InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3 2022.