One of the major airlines flying into the Dominican Republic announced that it will be filing for bankruptcy.

AMR American Airlines and American Eagle

AMR is the parent company for both American Airlines (AA) and American Eagle so problems affecting one of the airlines will be affecting both. AMR has stated that it has $4.1 Billion dollars in cash to pay to keep services going for the two airlines so at this time it would appear your tickets for American Airlines of American Eagle to and from the Dominican Republic will remain valid. That includes if you have frequent flyer miles under the AAdvantage program of American Airlines and OneWorld Alliance.

In the press release issued by American Airlines today it was stated that they and American Eagle “EXPECT TO CONTINUE” normal services, and flight schedules as well as make reservations, exchanges and offer refunds under its normal rules.

Thomas W. Horton, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of AMR and American Airlines, said, “Throughout the restructuring process, as always, our customers remain our top priority and they can continue to depend on us for the safe, reliable travel and high quality service they know and expect from us. We intend to maintain a strong presence in domestic and international markets, including our cornerstones in Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, New York, Miami and Los Angeles. As we and all airlines routinely do, we will continue to evaluate our operations and service, assuring that our network is as efficient and productive as possible.”

That being said, that does not mean that all flight schedule and departure locations that affect travelers to and from the Dominican Republic will remain intact. So prepare for the possibility of flights being canceled, moved to other airports, or rescheduled.

American Airlines currently has flights to and from Santiago, Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata, La Romana and Punta Cana.

This site will be monitoring press releases from American Airlines and will report as soon as possible any planned long term changes in the flights to and from the DR. Likewise readers are encouraged to leave comments about any changes that have been made to their schedules during the transition in the comments of this post so that others will be aware of any problems before they book new flights.

American Airline Stocks

Among other things this is bad news if you own stock in AA. Shares dropped from about $1.29 to around 33 cents this morning (Tues 11/29/11). This came after a huge drop earlier in the year, so if you invested in American Airlines you’re going to be in pretty bad shape.

Often shares in a company that files for chapter 11 are completely canceled and new shares are issued to pay back some of the debt holders (as happened with Delta airline stocks in 2005), so it’s probably not a good idea to start thinking about buying up AA shares with the idea that they will start to climb once the company is reorganized.

Leave A comment if you have been affected by this bankruptcy