American Airlines Group, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the American Airlines Group's First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star, then 1 on your telephone. If you require operator assistance during the call, please press star, then 0. And now I would like to turn the conference over to your moderator, Head of Investor Relations, Mr. Dan Cravens.

Thank you, Liz, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the American Airlines Group fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. On the call this morning, we have Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO, Robert Isom, President and incoming CEO, and Derek Kerr, Chief Financial Officer. Also on the call for our Q&A session are several of our senior execs, including Maya Liebman, Steve Johnson, Basi Raja, David Seymour, Nate Gatton, and Devin Mack. Like we normally do, Doug will start the call with an overview report These statements represent our predictions and expectations as to future events, but numerous risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ from those projected. Information about some of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our earnings pressure release that was issued this morning, as well as our Form 10Q for the quarter ended September 30th, 2021. In addition, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures this morning which exclude the impact of unusual items. Parker.

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everybody, and thanks for being on the call. We have a lot to cover today, but I'm going to start with the big news since last quarter's call, at least for me, which is that Robert Isom is going to be the next CEO of American Airlines. That change is effective on March 31st. I'm going to remain chairman of American's board, but importantly, I will have no executive duties. Robert will be fully in charge. I will stay on as chairman for as long as Robert and the board find that of value. This is terrific news for our team. Robert's going to be the ninth CEO in the nearly 100-year history of American Airlines, which we believe is the best job in all of aviation. And we all are excited for Robert and for America. As you all know, Robert's someone I've worked alongside for several decades. He's an extraordinary team builder who understands the complexities of operating an airline like American. He loves the people of American, and he brings a fresh perspective to the future of American. I know he's going to accomplish great things, and I'm looking forward to watching that happen along with all of you. Now, what this transition does mean is this is going to be my last earnings call with you all, which is kind of a big deal for me. I've had a speaking role on every quarterly earnings call since I became CFO of America West Airlines in June of 1995. So by my calculations, this makes this my 107th consecutive quarterly call. So, look, I'm going to try not to speak as much on this one as I have on the first 106 calls, especially as it relates to the company's go-forward plans. Rather, I'm going to let those who are leading American into the future talk about that future. But before I turn on the stage, though, I do have a couple of quick thank yous. First is to you all, the sell-side analysts and the reporters who cover our business. You all have very important jobs covering this crazy industry that we all love, and you do it extremely well. I hope you know I have great respect for what you do and the challenges you face. And I've done my best throughout my career to treat you with the respect you deserve and give you access and the candor you need to do your job well. And you've all been extremely fair to me, which I really appreciate. So thank you very much. That's a blanket thank you to all of you on the line. It also goes to some of the great people who preceded you, former analysts like Paul Karos, Candace Browning, Sam Butler, and former reporters like Terry Maxson, Susan Carey, and Scott McCartney. Thank you all. The second thank you is to the American Airlines team, which I can't begin to do adequately on this call. But what I can do to somewhat thank them is to tell you all about the phenomenal job they did in 2021. In the year when growing back to meet a huge increase in demand was the most important and challenging objective for all airlines, the American team grew back faster and further than anyone else. We served about 25% more customers than any other airline in 2020. which is phenomenal in our industry. The last time any U.S. airline was that much larger than the next highest competitor was more than 10 years ago, and that was done by merging two existing airlines, not through organic growth. This growth in 2021 led us to hire 16,000 new team members last year. We expect to hire another 18,000 in 2022. Our team managed that growth while taking great care of our customers. We posted the best operating performance in our company's history in 2021, with the highest on-time performance and completion factor we've ever had. And we were the second highest of the four largest airlines in all of those metrics, despite the fact we grew back so much further and faster than they did. We're particularly proud of how we ended the year, certainly relative to our competitors. Our team handled far more customers than any other airline over the holidays, and we did so with much less disruption than our primary competitors. America was the top-performing airline among all airlines in December in each of the key operating metrics. As our teams performed as well, our customers have taken note. Our full year 2021 likelihood to recommend scores were the highest in American history. That's an incredible testament to our people, who not only show up every day to operate the world's largest airline, but they do so in a way that welcomes back our customers with open arms. And all of this translated to our shareholders as well. In a year of very difficult stock performance for the industry, American stock increased 19%, far more than any other U.S. airline. So I want to summarize all this to convey my gratitude to the incredible American Airlines team. And I want to thank each of them on behalf of our customers, our shareholders, and everyone who counts on them every day. It's this performance that gives us great confidence and momentum as we head into 2022 and beyond. So with that, thank you all again. I'm going to now turn it over to our soon-to-be CEO, Robert Isom, to talk about what lies ahead. Robert?