Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented the underwriters, led by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., in the offering of $947,778,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.375% class A pass through trust certificates and $266,046,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.700% class B pass through trust certificates by American Airlines, Inc. (“American”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group Inc. (“AAG”).
American will use the proceeds of the offering to finance the purchase of certain new and existing aircraft in its fleet. American, together with AAG and AAG’s wholly-owned regional airlines subsidiaries and third-party regional carriers, is the largest airline in the world as measured by revenue passenger miles and available seat miles, and operates an average of nearly 6,700 flights per day to 339 destinations in 54 countries. AAG was formed in 1982 under the name AMR Corporation as the parent company of American which was founded in 1934. AAG and certain of its subsidiaries emerged from voluntary bankruptcy in December 2013, at which time it began the process of merging with US Airways Group, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Together, the consolidated entity is working towards operational integration, which will result in the issuance by the Federal Aviation Administration of a single operating certificate.
The Milbank team was led by partners Elihu Robertson, Arnie Peinado and special counsel Kevin MacLeod. Also working on the transaction were Securities associates Okeoma Moronu, Matthew Kusel, Cora Fanning and Niels Jensen; Tax partner Andrew Walker, Tax special counsel Eschrat Rahimi-Laridjani and Tax associate Michael Goon. A separate Milbank team was led by Transportation & Space partner Helfried Schwarz, as counsel to the Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (“Crédit Agricole”) as depositary and liquidity provider. Also representing Crédit Agricole was Transportation & Space associate Jasmine Jin.
