I'd like to turn the conference over to Doug Parker, Chairman of American Airlines Group, Inc. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. I am Doug Parker, Chairman of American Airlines Group, Inc. I will be the chair of this 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. We are pleased to conduct this year's annual meeting virtually, which will allow a greater number of our stockholders to be included and participate. Joining us today are all members of the board of directors, several members of our senior management team, and representatives of KPMG, our independent public accounting firm. Our corporate secretary, Priya Aiyar, will serve as the secretary for the meeting. I'll start with a brief review of the agenda.
We're gonna start by taking care of some housekeeping items, and then we'll move to the official business for today's meeting, which is consideration of the proposals described in our proxy statement. At the conclusion of the formal business, our CEO, Robert Isom, will then provide an overview of the state of the business, and then we'll take some questions. First on the housekeeping, only stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. Answers to any questions that are submitted in accordance with the meeting rules of conduct and are not addressed will be posted on the company's website following the meeting. If you encounter any difficulties submitting questions during the meeting, please refer to the proxy statement for information on how to reach our technical support team.
I will now formally call to order the 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. We'll now proceed with the formal business of the meeting as described in the notice of annual meeting and the proxy statement. The board of directors fixed April 12, 2022 as the record date determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting. An affidavit has been delivered attesting to the fact that the notice of the meeting was mailed commencing on April 28th, 2022 to all stockholders as of the record date and will be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. Stockholder list shows that as of the record date, there were 649,513,571 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting.
That list of stockholders and the number of shares held by each stockholder as of that record date is available on the web portal for any stockholder wishing to inspect it. The board of directors has appointed Mediant as the inspector of election for the meeting. Mediant is represented by Bernard Faragher. His function is to determine the number of shares represented at this meeting and the validity of proxies and ballots, and count all votes and ballots cast as to each matter. The Inspector of Election has been sworn in, and I have as well. I've been informed by the Inspector of Election the shares present in person or represented by proxy are in excess of quorum requirements, so we will begin the meeting. The poll is open today, June 8, 2022 at 9:00 A.M. Central Time for voting.
There are seven proposals to be considered by the stockholders of this meeting as described in the proxy materials. Those are the election of 14 directors, the ratification of the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2022, an advisory vote to approve the compensation of American Airlines Group's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement, a proposal to amend our certificate of incorporation to allow future amendments to the bylaws of our stockholders by a simple majority vote, a proposal to amend our certificate of incorporation to allow all other provisions of the certificate of incorporation to be amended in the future by simple majority vote, a proposal to approve the Tax Benefit Preservation Plan, and a stockholder proposal to provide a report on certain lobbying activities. No other matters will be considered.
The first item of business is the election of 14 directors nominated by the board of directors. No other nominations complying with the nominations, procedures in the company's bylaws have been received, and the nominations are closed. Pursuant to the company's bylaws, the company's directors are elected on an annual basis. At this meeting, Jim Albaugh, Jeff Benjamin, Adriane Brown, John Cahill, Mike Embler, Matt Hart, Robert Isom, Sue Kronick, Marty Nesbitt, Denise O'Leary, Ray Robinson, Greg Smith, Doug Steenland, and myself, Doug Parker, have been nominated as directors of the company to serve until the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders and until their respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. Board of Directors has recommended that stockholders vote for each of the nominees.
The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm for the American Airlines Group for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. The board of directors has recommended that the stockholders vote for the ratification of the appointment of KPMG as American Airlines Group's independent registered public accounting firm for 2022. The third item of business is the approval on a non-binding advisory basis of the compensation of the named executive officers of American Airlines Group as disclosed pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC as described in the compensation discussion and analysis. The compensation tables, narrative discussion, and any related material disclosed in the proxy statement.
The board of directors has recommended that the stockholders vote for the approval of, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of American Airlines Group's named executive officers. The fourth item of business is a proposal to amend our certificate of incorporation to allow future amendments to the bylaws by our stockholders by simple majority vote. The board of directors has recommended that the stockholders vote for the amendment to our certificate of incorporation to allow future amendments to the bylaws by our stockholders by simple majority vote.
The fifth item of business is a proposal to amend our certificate of incorporation to allow all other provisions of the certificate of incorporation to be amended in the future by simple majority vote. Board of Directors has recommended that stockholders vote for the amendment to our certificate of incorporation to allow all other provisions of the certificate of incorporation to be amended in the case you vote a majority vote. The sixth item of business is a proposal to approve the Tax Benefit Preservation Plan. The board of directors has recommended that stockholders vote for the Tax Benefit Preservation Plan. The seventh item of business is a stockholder proposal from stockholder John Chevedden. At this time, as chair, I recognize Mr. Chevedden for a period of two minutes. Operator, can you please open the line for Mr. Chevedden?
Mr. Chevedden, your line is open, sir.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay?
Yes, sir, we can.
Proposal seven, transparency in lobbying. Whereas shareholders believe in full disclosure of American Airlines direct and indirect lobbying activities and expenditures to assess whether its lobbying is consistent with its expressed goals and in shareholders' best interest. Resolved, shareholders request that the Board prepare a report describing company policy and procedures governing lobbying, both direct and indirect, and grassroots lobbying communications. Payments by American Airlines used for direct or indirect lobbying, grassroots lobbying communications in each case, including the amount of the payment and the recipient. Description of management and the Board's decision-making process and oversight for making payments described above. For purposes of this proposal, a grassroots lobbying communication is a communication directed to the general public that refers to specific legislation or regulation, reflects a view on the legislation or regulation, and encourages the recipient of the communication to take action with respect to the legislation or regulation.
Indirect lobbying is lobbying engaged in by trade associations or other organizations of which American Airlines is a member. This report shall be presented to the Corporate Governance and Public Responsibility Committee and posted on American Airlines' website. The management objection to this proposal is a contradiction. Management in effect says that much of the information requested in this proposal can be found by any industrious shareholder with a lot of spare time by hunting through various existing reports. It is simply too much effort for the management of a $10 billion-dollar company to combine this information in one report for the convenience of shareholders and our directors. American Airlines fails to disclose its payments to trade associations and social welfare organizations or the amounts used for lobbying, including grassroots.
Companies can give unlimited amounts to third-party groups that spend millions on lobbying and often undisclosed grassroots activity, and these groups may be spending at least double what's publicly reported. American Airlines serves on the boards of Airlines for America and the International Air Transport Association, IATA. It belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and to the Business Roundtable, which altogether spend $207 million on federal lobbying for 2019 and 2020. Shareholders are concerned that American Airlines lack of lobbying disclosure presents reputational risk when its lobbying contradicts company public positions or takes controversial positions. For example, American Airlines lobbying against limited baggage and ticketing change fees has attracted scrutiny. American Airlines has publicly committed to a carbon emissions reduction target, yet IATA has lobbied to weaken carbon reduction regulations for international aviation.
While American Airlines believes in addressing climate change, the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have lobbied against passage of landmark climate legislation, and American Airlines has spoken out against state voter restrictions, yet the Chamber of Commerce lobbied against For the People Act. Shareholders believe that reputational damage stemming from these misalignments could harm shareholder value and urge American Airlines to expand its lobbying disclosure. Please vote yes transparency in lobbying Proposal seven.
Thanks sir. The board recommends a vote against this proposal for the reasons provided in the company's proxy statement. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. Any stockholder who hasn't voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Only stockholders of record on April 12, 2022 are eligible to vote at this meeting. We're now gonna take a short pause to allow for stockholders who have not yet voted to do so. Okay. The time is 9:11 A.M. Central Time, and the polls are now closed for voting.
The inspector of election has advised me that a majority of the votes previously cast have been voted for all of the director nominees listed in Proposal One, for Proposals Two and Three and Six, against Proposal Seven, and that the required super majority of the votes previously cast have not been voted for Proposals Four and Five. The inspector of election will prepare the certificate of the inspector of elections for the company once all votes are tallied, and the results will be detailed in a current report on Form 8-K, which we will file with the SEC. This concludes the formal portion of the meeting and the stockholders meeting is now adjourned. Before we get to questions, we want to take a few minutes to highlight some of what we see on the horizon for American. As with most presentations
The following discussion contains forward-looking statements, and the company's actual results may differ materially from those discussed here. Additional information concerning factors that could cause such a difference can be found in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2022. I wanna bring in American CEO Robert Isom now to share a brief update on the state of the business. Robert.
Thanks Doug and good morning everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with everybody today. Doug, thanks for your extraordinary leadership of American Airlines over the years. It's an honor to have the trust of our team and our board of directors to succeed you as CEO, and I'm grateful for the privilege of leading this incredible company. It's a fantastic time for the airline industry. Travel isn't just back, it's moving. People wanna get out there and fly, and we're poised to lead the recovery thanks to the entire American Airlines team. Their hard work and commitment to customers and each other is truly extraordinary. Our team has worked very hard to position us well for the recovery.
We've simplified our fleet, we've fine-tuned our network, we're developing new partnerships, rolling out new tools for our customers and team, modernizing our facilities, and hiring thousands of new team members, all while flying the largest airline in the world. This year, we've been resolute in achieving two key goals above all else, running a reliable airline or an operation and returning the company to profitability. We're making strong progress on both of those initiatives thanks to the continued efforts and dedication to our team, I'm pleased to say. Running a reliable operation this summer is critical to the continued recovery, and we're taking steps to ensure that we're well-prepared. We've delivered a strong operating performance in recent months, and we're committed to maintaining that momentum.
American has 12,000 more team members in place to support the operation this summer than we had last summer. We've already welcomed in 800 new pilots this year, which is ahead of our goal. We'll continue to recruit and hire and train across all departments in the company to ensure that we have the best resource, the best people, talent in the industry ready to go. As we work to return to profitability, we've remained focused on keeping our controllable costs down to ensure that we are a more efficient airline. We've taken $1.3 billion out of costs out of the business. Despite really high fuel prices, we expect our unit cost performance to improve as utilization of our aircraft approach its historic levels.
Deleveraging our balance sheet also remains a top priority, and we're committed to significant debt reduction in the years ahead. To that end, we remain on track with our target of reducing overall debt levels by $15 billion by the end of 2025. Demand is as strong as we've ever seen it. People wanna get out there and travel, and the American team has done an incredible job of setting up the airline to take advantage of rebound. We set up our airline to fly where customers wanna go, and we're growing and establishing new partnerships, adding to those places that people wanna fly and also putting efficiency top of mind. Our fleet is the youngest and most fuel-efficient among the U.S. global network carriers.
In the last month, we completed our narrowbody fleet harmonization program which covers more than 500 aircraft and ensures a consistent product and better experience for our customers. We've also made updates to our fleet order book and the timing of future deliveries to better meet strong demand and to capitalize on a maturing long-haul international market. The future of our industry and the future of American Airlines is really bright. The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of travel and the importance of the work that our team does every day to bring people together. The demand and revenue environment is very strong. Leisure demand is strong, and business and international trends are promising. No airline is better positioned to operate in today's environment than American because of our fleet, our network, and everything that our team continues to accomplish.
With that, I'd like to open it up to questions from our stockholders. Caroline Clayton from our corporate communications department is here to help me with Q&A. Caroline.
Thanks Robert. Stockholders had the opportunity to submit questions in advance of the meeting, and we'll start by answering those. In addition, you may submit questions through the web portal during this portion of the meeting. Please note that only questions submitted to the meeting will be answered in this segment since it's limited to one question per stockholder. If we're unable to answer all the questions during the meeting, we'll post those responses to the web portal following the meeting. With that, we will start with some on the future. What are American's main priorities over the next few years that will allow the company to maximize growth, increase revenue, and ensure customers choose American when they fly?
Thanks Caroline. Look, we're focused on two goals right now above all else, running reliable operations and returning to profitability. That's what we have. Those are the keys to our future. We've made significant progress over the last couple of years getting to a point where we can execute on both of those. American ended 2021 with the strongest operational performance in our company's history, and we've led the industry. We led the industry in on-time departures. We're operating a much larger schedule than our competitors. That performance has continued on into 2022. While other carriers have struggled, especially over holidays, American has really held its own. Our recent performance also shows that we're ready.
We're 20% larger, carrying more customers to more places than any other airline. As we look to returning to profitability, that strength of our network and our partnerships is going to really drive revenue, not just now, but long into the future, especially in an environment where people wanna get out there. That we're keeping our costs in line. We're gonna run an efficient airline, and efficiency is going to be something that we continue to focus on each and every day. Over the last couple of years, we've taken $1.3 billion out of the cost of our business. We're flying an airline with that can produce the same amount of capacity that we had in 2019 with about 10% fewer aircraft.
All that is adding up to and allowing us to make sure that de-leveraging is also a primary focus. We talk a lot about our commitment to reducing debt, and we remain on track with all of our targets. If we do all this well, American is set up for the future, running reliable operations, taking care of customers, returning to profitability. I'm really proud of our team and where we're headed.
Thank you. That answers, I think, the near term of the next few years, but some people have asked beyond that, what's the future look like, for American Airlines? What are you doing now, to ensure that success beyond the next couple of years?
Well, fortunately, we've never stopped planning for the future. Whether it's our fleet and where I know that our aircraft can take us or the investments that we've made at facilities. I don't know if people have been out to LaGuardia. I hear it in New York today that facility is fabulous, and it's really a nice place to visit. I was in Washington last week. Reagan National is a wonderful airport. We have the new regional concourse. The same type of investments are being made throughout our network and I'm really excited about our ability to utilize those assets, those investments in a way that will really make sure that we take care of our customers. To that end, taking care of customers, we're hiring and training our folks.
We've hired tens and tens of thousands of team members that we're bringing on because their purpose in life is to take care of customers and to take care of customers on life's journey. We're set up well in the future, really pleased with the set of assets we have to work with.
Thank you. You did speak about operational reliability a bit, but can you give some specifics of how American is working to improve its reliability?
Look, the key is just simply sizing the airline for the resources that we have available. Our planning horizon has been one that was in the heart of the pandemic, more or less calculated over the course of weeks. We've now extended that planning horizon out months, and we're getting to the point where we're actually taking a look to years and years in the future. That allows us to make sure that we're taking care of customers, that we have schedules out there that we can plan for and that customers can rely on. We've brought our schedule back faster. We've been flying more customers. We still have an airline that's 20% larger than our competitors, and we're doing that in a fashion that we're producing reliability.
Even the most recent start of summer holidays where some other hub-and-spoke carriers quite frankly struggled. We're all set after this together. We're bringing on new tools in our largest hubs. DFW to Charlotte. We're deploying technology that allows us to plan for inclement weather in a better fashion and address that when it happens, and it does happen, and we know that we've got to get better and better, and we will. That technology is coming into the fold. As well, we're giving customers many more options to be able to service and help themselves really quick and timely and spacious.
Part of that reliability relies on crews. Someone had asked, what are American's plans to address the industry pilot shortage?
Well, it's a fantastic question. Let me just say first, though, from a mainline perspective, American is not facing a shortage. Quite the opposite. Pilots want to work for American Airlines. This is a great place to build your career. It's a great place to build your career and what we are doing is making sure that our pilots are taken care of very well. This year we're gonna hire 2,000 pilots. 800 have been brought on board already. As I've said before, we're on target and on pace to making sure that we have all the pilots we need to fill our airline from a mainline perspective.
What we have to do is make sure that we can train those pilots and get them out on the line in a really efficient fashion. We've invested a tremendous amount in training capacity, bringing on new simulators, upgrading facilities. We have the best training team in the business, and I'm certain that we'll be able to make sure that the pilots that we bring in can get out on the line in a really efficient fashion and carry on the American tradition of having the best aviators in the business. Now, that all said, there is a constraint, certainly from a pilot supply perspective.
There's been a tremendous number of retirements as the pandemic has gone on, and that is leading to hiring not just with us, but others in the industry as well. That shortfall then is felt by regional carriers, the regional carrier industry. To that end, we are doing our part to make sure that our carriers that are protected and dealt with in a fashion where we are aggressively recruiting and bringing people to the business. On that front, I'm pleased to say American is a real leader with our Cadet Academy at the mainline and as well the cadet academies at Envoy, Piedmont and PSA. It's a fantastic career.
We're gonna bring more pilots into the business and make sure it's time to work out, but I'm confident it is something that will work its way out over the course of a few years. To those that are listening in, there is never a better time. Please check in with us at Piedmont, PSA, and Envoy. Anybody that's a pilot, we'd love to talk to you. With that, it may take a few years to work our way through from a regional perspective, but I'm confident in the long run.
Great. As of this morning, with that in mind, American makes no secret of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially as it pertains to hiring. Are those DEI policies also applied to pilot hiring?
Absolutely. Of course, both at the mainline and the regionals. If anybody wants to see, you know, proof positive, take a look at a video that we've put out, Legacy of Firsts. It's on our website that's in the newsroom. It'll show you the great work that we're doing from a DEI perspective, especially with bringing Black aviators to the business and then seeing their careers really, really prosper, especially at American.
On the topic of pilots, maybe one more there. American is currently negotiating a contract with its pilots. When will that deal get done? And are there pay increases we should expect for pilots or other employees?
Well, look, on that front, I can't speculate on when contracts are gonna get done. That's a matter of some negotiation, and fortunately, we're negotiating really well with our APA, the union that represents our mainline pilots. We're all aligned in making sure that we get the best for our pilots. We're committed to paying our pilots at the top of the industry. Now, there have been changes in that industry. We know that United has a tentative agreement. We don't know the details to that, but I know that that's gonna bake into the kind of look that we have to make to determine where that top of the industry is. We're committed to take care of our pilots, and I'm confident that we're gonna make progress and ensure that our pilots have what they need, as we make our way through the year.
Switching gears to the customer side, what are you doing to improve the customer experience and make sure that American is, consumers' choice when they're flying?
Well, look, American has invested billions of dollars, almost $30 billion in new aircraft over the last six or seven years. We have the newest fleet in the business among the network carriers. We have the best lounges. You know, go out and travel, you know, you'll see in LaGuardia, the opening of our Admirals Club, which will be fully open in the next couple of weeks. We're making similar improvements in many other places as well. We have the best frequent flyer program as well. The best measure for us is likelihood to recommend. That metric that we track shows that we're doing better than we ever have at the heart of it.
Whether it's flying a nice plane, like I mentioned, our fleets have been harmonized, are new to a new standard, or having an industry-leading Wi-Fi or the larger overhead bins and power to every seat. That's all great. What customers really want is a reliable flight. That absolutely makes sure that people are getting to where they need to go, the food tastes better, the service is a little more friendly, and we're focused on making sure that we deliver that.
Okay. Specifically on profitability, can you outline what American is doing to return to profitability?
Well, sure. Again, running a reliable airline, completing as many flights as we can is top of the order. On top of that is running a really efficient airline. Fleet simplification plays a huge role in that. We only have four mainline fleet types. We've done a similar rationalization of our regional aircraft. It drives cost savings, but it makes it an easier airline to fly. It really does help our scheduling team put the aircraft where they need to go and do it in a profitable fashion. I've mentioned before that we've taken $1.3 billion of permanent cost reductions out of the business, and we've been able to update our fleet as well.
Deleveraging top of mind, we've got a commitment to reduce overall debt by $15 billion by the end of 2025. We've reduced overall debt by more than $4 billion in the last year. Look, we're also making sure that we size the airline appropriate from a fleet perspective, from an airports perspective and a personnel perspective as we go forward. You're gonna see American with a keen eye to efficiency. Overriding all of that, we're in a marketplace where demand is booming. That has been certainly something that is well received. Even in light of higher fuel costs, we're confident that we're gonna be returning to profitability here in the second quarter.
Looking at the stock, how has American stock performed relative to its competitors, and what are you doing to improve that?
Look, the best thing that we can do is produce profits. The last two years have been incredibly hard on the aviation industry, but we made decisions during the pandemic to make sure that we emerged out of it, a much more efficient airline and one that's been prepared for the recovery. Again, I've said it before a couple of times, running a reliable airline, returning to profitability. We're laser-focused on making sure that we hit our targets. We do that, and we're gonna take care of our shareholders as well.
When is the company going to reinstate a dividend?
Well, on that front, look, we have a goal to return to profitability. I've talked about our top priority of reducing leverage. Those are our first priorities. We're actually prohibited from buying back shares or paying a dividend through September this year. Look, when we return to profitability, when we've taken care of our leverage and we are in a position of having excess cash, I'm sure I'll sit down with the board of directors and determine what's best to do with that.
I have several questions before the meeting and this morning on fuel. American has previously identified aircraft fuel as its second highest fixed cost. Is that still the case today?
It's increased. Jet fuel has increased considerably in recent months. As outlined in our first quarter financials, salaries or wages were $3.2 billion in the first quarter, and aircraft fuel and related taxes were approximately $2.5 billion. That's accurate based on our most recent financial releases.
Is there a reason why American doesn't have hedges in place to cover oil price?
Well, we're a really large airline, and you know, most US airlines don't have fuel hedges in place. Fuel hedging contracts for an airline our size would be just really expensive and quite frankly, not provide a heck of a lot of future coverage. It's not a good time to start hedging when fuel prices are as volatile and rising as quickly as they've had. We found over history, the best way to have the most cost-effective management of fuel prices is to recover that expense through yield management and you know, making sure that we charge an appropriate amount to produce a return. To that end, demand is really strong right now.
Those strong yields allow for us to be profitable at current fuel levels than we've seen in history. That the airline industry and American can be profitable even when fuel is at the levels that we see today. We're gonna continue to be flexible in terms of capacity. We're gonna make sure that we are very cognizant of the demand environment and size the airline appropriately. We view that we're doing the right things right now.
Looking at the clock, I think we have time for about one more. On demand specifically, what are you seeing with demand? What is the outlook for travel as COVID becomes more a normal part of our society?
People are getting back to flying. They wanna connect. They hate being cooped up, and that's fortunate right now. Let's face it, since 2019, the economy, the GDP within the U.S. has grown by, you know, probably, you know, 15%. The airline business today is, even in America, 10%, almost 10% smaller than it was in 2019. There's a tremendous amount of pent-up demand. I feel good about where we're headed. We've been led by a leisure recovery to this point. What we see is small and medium-sized businesses are out there traveling. Where those businesses go, we know the larger corporate and government business is gonna follow.
I have great optimism that as we make our way through the rest of 2022, that we're gonna see business travel revenues and, you know, passenger levels certainly get back to where they were in 2019, even if not higher by the end of the year. I would add that we're seeing great progress in terms of the return of international demand. I view that this summer season, especially for big cities in Europe, is gonna be a time when we're gonna take a lot of people. Okay. Caroline, that's it for questions. With that concludes the question and answer session.
I'd like to thank everyone for attending our 2022 annual meeting of our stockholders. Thank you.