FORT WORTH – November 5, 2025 – American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier by fleet and revenue, told employees Wednesday it will lay off 656 people and eliminate 119 unfilled vacancies, targeting $350 million in annual savings by 2027. The cuts, centered at the airline’s Texas headquarters, hit management and back-office teams hardest and arrive just 24 hours after Donald Trump’s re-election victory—when the industry had hoped for cheaper fuel and lighter regulation.

CEO Robert Isom broke the news in a 4 a.m. memo obtained by ABC News and Yahoo Finance: “No decision about people is ever easy, but fixed-cost inflation and margin pressure demand decisive action.”

What’s Being Cut

• 656 pink slips (365 in Fort Worth, 291 elsewhere)
• 119 open jobs frozen forever
• Hardest-hit units: corporate IT, revenue management, network planning, HR, and comms
• Exit timeline: 45–60 days, with 4–12 weeks severance + 6 months of health coverage

Market Pulse

AAL stock opened up 0.8 % at 9:30 a.m. ET, then flattened to $13.42 by 11 a.m.—a muted shrug from investors who price in every $100 million of savings as roughly 9 cents of EPS. Barclays calls the math “helpful but not heroic” in a year when American expects just a 4 % pre-tax margin.

Why Now?

1. Jet fuel up 12 % since August
2. $38 billion debt costing $1.6 billion in annual interest
3. Domestic seats growing 5 % while demand rises only 2 %
4. Spirit and Frontier slashing fares on 200 overlapping routes

Fort Worth Reacts

City Hall issued a two-sentence statement: “We’re in constant touch with American leadership to soften the blow on local families.” The pilots’ and flight attendants’ unions fired back jointly: “Corporate cuts won’t fix old planes or frozen frontline pay.”

On X, #AALayoffs trended with 8,400 posts by noon. One freshly minted ex-manager wrote: “I built the Dallas hub for 18 years. Got a 14-line goodbye email.” Another user quipped: “American Airlines—where the sky’s the limit… for layoffs.”

Roadmap Ahead

• February 2026: first wave gone
• March 2026: new “flatter” org chart unveiled
• 2027: full $350 million run-rate savings (≈1.8 pts of operating margin)

Insiders say the board has a secret “Plan B” for 1,000 more cuts if winter yields disappoint.

Bigger Picture

American is the third U.S. mega-carrier to swing the axe in 60 days (United: 500, Delta: 300). Record 260 million passengers this year still can’t paper over the industry’s core math problem: too many seats, sticky costs, razor-thin pricing power.

While Wall Street cheers capital discipline, Fort Worth counts the human toll—and America learns once again that even at 37,000 feet, gravity eventually wins.