What's the whole thing with Obama has to do with AA?
Frankly the rest of the world (yes America, there is more) would like Obama to stay. He opens up to the rest of the world, he's got a brain, he's got a vision.
The alternatives are frankly downright dangerous... like Bachmann who's stupid as a lamppost and still thinks the Soviet Union is alive and Cain who's keeping his own brothel so it seems.
That aside,
what I meant to say earlier in this whole conversation.
Although a Chapter 11 might be fair in the domestic market of the USA, globally, it's unfair competition. When AF/KL or BA or whatever airline does what AA has been doing for years, they'd go bust. Finito. The end.
In my opinion and I'm guessing I'm not the only one who thinks that, Chapter 11 is a free ticket for mismanagement and incompetence as it will all turn out alright in the end. The CEO gets his bonus and the airline stays afloat. If that's America's idea of a free economy... 
I agree with Dasha up to a point. She's right when she says that Chapter 11 is for top managers the same thing as the "Leave prison for free" in Monopoly. IMHO there should be some kind of responability on behalf of the top management for these outcomes. And I'm writing you from Italy, where the government bailed out Alitalia a lot of times (since it was a government owned company).
I reckon that one of the aims of Chapter 11 is to give companies a second chance and to avoid "serial bankrupcies": killing a company could lead to a chain reaction of bankrupcies in the country because we are not talking about peanuts. It would also shock the whole air transport industry both in the USA and abroad (AA is part of One World). So, for a quiet living, Chapter 11 is the answer... There would be some layoffs, but not as many as if AA went bankrupt. Banks will have their money back, sometime in the future and probably not the whole amount, but it is better than than a kick in the t***s, I reckon!
Chapter 11 is not an anti competitive practice: as Sigma rightly pointed out, it exists in almost every country of this world even if it has different rules and has different names.
Moreover, it can probably be a parachute for incompetent managers, but it is also a parachute for honest employees of the company who have no faults for the behaviour of their managers and their wrong decisions.
The purchase of new a/c is probably the wisest choice made by the managers of AA. I have no idea of which reason led to the break up between unions and management, but I somehow have the feeling that it is realted to this huge order as well. Probably some memebers of the crews (both pilots and cabin staff) would have to be laid off...
Regards
PS: I find quite funny that Dasha, coming from a country which once was the living symbol of socialism, speaks in such anti-socialist terms, eheheh!
