American Airlines announced:

To celebrate our 100th anniversary, American trading cards are taking flight.

Starting soon, pilots will be sharing collectible cards featuring some of the aircraft from our current fleet, plus special centennial editions honoring iconic planes like the DC‑3, 707 and MD‑80. Each card includes aircraft specs, diagrams and fascinating facts that make every flight a little more memorable.

Flying with us this summer? Ask your pilot and start collecting.

American Airlines aircraft slide show (historical liveries):

American Airlines is advancing the future of air travel with the official launch of electronic boarding gates at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) beginning this summer. Following a successful pilot in November 2025, and strong customer feedback, American is now deploying the technology at scale at its largest hub, reinforcing the airline’s commitment to a more seamless, user-friendly and consistent boarding experience. 

American will be the first major U.S. network carrier to install dormakaba electronic boarding gates at scale at a major U.S. airport hub, starting in the new DFW Terminal C Pier Expansion, setting a new standard for how customers move from gate to aircraft. 

A more seamless, enhanced journey

Electronic boarding gates extend American’s broader digital journey by giving customers clearer guidance and a more predictable path from the gate to the aircraft. 

The nearly 20 dormakaba Argus Air XS electronic boarding gates will support customers and team members throughout the boarding process by:

• Streamlining manual tasks for American’s team members during boarding, allowing them more time to provide exceptional customer service and operationally critical tasks
• Providing clear, American-branded touchscreen instructions so customers know exactly what to expect 
• Automatically validating boarding passes before opening, allowing customers to proceed smoothly to the aircraft 
• Regulating the pace of boarding to reduce congestion and improve jet bridge flow

“After piloting the technology late last year and seeing positive feedback from both customers and team members, we’re excited to further incorporate electronic boarding gates at DFW,” said American’s Senior Vice President of DFW Hub Operations Jim Moses. “This is another step forward in creating a modern, seamless journey for customers, while keeping our people at the center of the experience.”

The new gates will debut at American’s new Terminals A and C pier expansions scheduled to open this year. The piers are part of a multiyear modernization project of DFW, aimed at delivering a smoother and enhanced experience for customers and team members. The gates will be another opportunity for American to simplify its customers’ boarding experience, while enhancing the airline’s already rigorous security standards.

Together, these capabilities help deliver an innovative boarding experience — regardless of flight, time of day or destination.

A foundation for the future of travel

Boarding is one part of American’s broader focus on improving the end-to-end customer journey. Following the launch at DFW, American plans to expand electronic boarding gates to additional hubs and gateway airports over time, helping standardize the boarding experience across the network.

Electronic boarding gates are the latest in a series of digital innovations American has introduced to enhance the customer experience across every stage of the journey. Last year, American added faster, more secure flight connection and identity verification processes through the rollout of One Stop Security for international connecting passengers and the TSA PreCheck Touchless ID program, which are making the airport experience quicker and more consistent for travelers.

This year, American continues to invest in technology that brings clarity, consistency and confidence to travel with the launch of free inflight Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T, for all AAdvantage® members, ongoing mobile app enhancements and smarter disruption-management tools that help customers rebook more easily during irregular operations.

Together, these advancements reflect American’s broader commitment to creating a more intuitive, connected and modern experience — one that empowers customers with the right information at the right time, whether they’re planning a trip, navigating the airport or settling in on board.

American Airlines gave a bit of history of its major system hubs:

American Airlines uses a hub-and-spoke network centered on nine hubs, enabling it to efficiently serve more origin and destination pairs than competitors.

American’s nine hubs are: Charlotte (CLT), Chicago (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK and LGA), Philadelphia (PHL), Phoenix (PHX) and Washington, D.C. (DCA).

Together, these hubs offer customers unparalleled global connectivity to more than 350 destinations in more than 60 countries. Over the past 100 years, American’s hubs have grown to help connect passengers to the world.

American’s CLT hub is the airline’s gateway to the southeast and a conveniently located connecting point for traffic throughout the eastern U.S. Currently, the airline serves more than 170 destinations from CLT. American Airlines legacy carrier Piedmont Airlines served Charlotte since its founding in 1948. By 1982, Piedmont opened its first hub at the airport, setting the stage for future growth, which included the region’s first trans-Atlantic service — to London — in 1987. Piedmont grew with the airport and the Charlotte region, and this growth continued as Piedmont became part of USAir (later rebranded as US Airways) in 1989. Following the merger of American and US Airways, the Charlotte hub has continued to play a critical role as the combined airline’s second-largest hub.

Chicago has been part of American’s network since the beginning, a century ago, when the first flight of forerunner Robertson Aircraft departed for St. Louis on April 15, 1926. A decade later, American was the first airline to fly the Douglas DC-3 between New York and Chicago. When O’Hare International Airport opened in 1955, American was among the first carriers to serve the airport, and legacy carrier TWA offered the airport’s first international service — to Paris. By the 1980s, following airline deregulation, American began offering broader connectivity and more service from ORD to more cities throughout the U.S. and eventually globally, with nonstop service to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) which began in 1990 and continues to this day. The ORD hub began as, and remains, a cornerstone of American’s network, connecting more than 150 destinations globally with more than 500 daily departures.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been a major part of American’s story. One of American’s earliest forerunner carriers, Southern Air Transport, was founded in Dallas nearly a century ago in 1929. In addition to providing American with deep roots in Texas, Southern also brought to American the man who would go on to guide the company for the first three decades of its existence: former CEO C.R. Smith. It is fitting that when DFW opened in 1974, American made the first landing at the new airport, and five years later relocated its headquarters to the area. American’s hub at DFW, first opened in 1981, has gone on to become the world’s second largest, with nonstop access to over 230 destinations (more than any other U.S. city) across more than 900 peak daily departures. American operates from all five terminals at DFW with plans to continue growing as part of additional investments in Terminals A and C, and a new Terminal F, planned to open in 2027.

In 1946, American became part of Los Angeles history when it was one of the first airlines to begin operations at LAX. After that, American pioneered nonstop transcontinental service with the Douglas DC-7 between New York and Los Angeles in 1953. In 1959, American launched the first transcontinental jet service with the Boeing 707 to Los Angeles from New York. Over more than 75 years of service at LAX, American has been a part of the entertainment industry’s travel needs and even appeared in numerous film and television productions. The airline continues to upgrade infrastructure to enhance passenger comfort at the airport, with a multiyear plan to modernize its home in Terminals 4 and 5.

MIA is American’s gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean with service to more than 75 international destinations — the most of any of American’s hubs. Although American entered the South Florida market later than some competitors, its arrival in 1979 — spurred by airline deregulation — marked the beginning of a dynamic and successful chapter for the airline in the region. This was exemplified by the 1990 purchase of former Eastern Airlines route authorities to Latin America, which brought about new service to dozens of cities in the Caribbean and South and Central America. Within a decade, work had begun on what became Terminal D — American’s consolidated, mile-long terminal offering fast, easy connections and premium customer amenities. American continues to add new destinations from MIA, turning it into the airline’s largest international gateway.

New York has played a central role in American’s history, with a succession of industry and world ‘firsts.’ Predecessor airlines such as Colonial Air Transport had served New York since the 1920s, and American pioneered the “Southern Route,” spanning the east and west coasts from New York, by the 1930s. In 1936, American became the first airline to fly the groundbreaking Douglas DC-3 between New York and Chicago. American was also the first airline to agree to serve the city’s new LaGuardia Airport when it opened in 1939, and at the same time ushered in a new era of airport comfort and luxury by opening the world’s first VIP lounge at LaGuardia: the Admirals Club^® lounge.

Two decades later, American inaugurated the country’s first transcontinental jet service from John F. Kennedy International Airport (then still known as ‘Idlewild’) to Los Angeles. American remains one of the largest carriers in the region, offering over 240 daily departures to more than 95 destinations, with many more served by partners. In 2021, American’s stunning new Terminal B at LGA officially opened, followed a year later by industry-leading premium lounges at JFK in partnership with British Airways.

American legacy carrier Allegheny Airlines was a fixture of commercial aviation in Pennsylvania beginning in 1939, and through mergers and market evolution, American’s Philadelphia hub originated in 1985 with legacy carrier USAir (later US Airways). Within 10 years, USAir expanded its presence from PHL to include trans-Atlantic flights to Frankfurt, Germany; London; and Paris, eventually necessitating the need for a new, enlarged international terminal which opened in 2003. Since the merger between American and US Airways, PHL has served as the airline’s primary trans-Atlantic gateway with flights to 19 destinations in Europe. As part of the carrier’s continued investment in PHL, American opened a new Flagship^® lounge and refreshed Admirals Club^® lounge in Terminal A in 2025.

American first began scheduled service to Phoenix in 1930, and in 1963 brought the first scheduled jet service to the region with the arrival of the Boeing 707. Deregulation ushered in the formation of innovative new airlines including America West, which was founded in Phoenix in 1983. Beginning with initial service to just three cities, America West grew to become the airport’s largest airline and ultimately merged with US Airways in 2005. Since the US Airways and American merger, PHX has remained an important hub for connecting the southwestern U.S. with the airline’s global network — including operating nearly 250 peak day departures to more than 100 destinations.

When DCA opened for operations in 1941, American was the first airline to operate at the airport. Owing to its importance both in the airline’s route system and with the local community, the airline opened its second Admirals Club^® lounge at the airport. As the airline industry evolved, so did DCA. The advent of larger jet aircraft ultimately led to a ‘perimeter rule’ being imposed at DCA, limiting most flights beyond 1,250 miles and ensuring high-quality air service to the nation’s capital for communities of all sizes. In 1997, the modern DCA was transformed by the opening of the new César Pelli-designed terminal facility that enhanced the airport experience without sacrificing the convenience and efficiency customers had come to appreciate. Throughout this continued evolution, first for US Airways and then American, the DCA hub has played a critical role both in serving local demand to and from the Washington, D.C., region as well as facilitating fast, easy connections along the East Coast.