American Airlines parent AMR posts wider loss

American Airlines parent AMR Corp reported a wider quarterly net loss on Wednesday, as it took charges tied to worker severance costs and its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

But excluding the special items, the company had a profit of $110 million for the third quarter as fuel costs fell and revenue edged higher.

The company, which had pilot absences and maintenance issues that led to flight cancellations and delays at American in the second half of September, said those incidents had no material effect on third-quarter results.

AMR, which sought U.S. bankruptcy protection last November, said its net loss had widened to $238 million, or 71 cents a share, from $162 million, or 48 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 0.8 percent to $6.43 billion. Total operating expenses were up 0.6 percent, but fuel costs fell 3.3 percent.

American Airlines, which offers more than 3,500 daily flights on average, also said it planned to hire more than 1,500 flight attendants over the next year. It cited a big response by current flight attendants to its recent voluntary separation program.

(Reporting by Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)