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American Airlines has said it plans to seek new financing as it posted an $8.9b net loss for the year and expects to burn cash until demand for air travel recovers. The airline reduced its cash burn to $30m a day in Q4, down from $44m in the previous quarter and almost $100m in April, when US airlines suffered the worst drop in passenger volumes at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in the US. It ended Q4 with $14.3b in liquidity and expects to have $15b in two months. The company’s stock price, trading at $18.90, has risen nearly 22% since the Tuesday close after retail investors on Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets community identified the airline, which has been shorted by many investors, as the next company in which they might invest. The Reddit investors have brought about a big surge in the stock price of video game retailer GameStop this month, forcing some hedge funds to withdraw from their short positions. Asked if American felt comfortable selling equity from a legal standpoint, CE Doug Parker replied that the airline still had a remaining $118m worth of shares available that it has been authorised to sell since October. “If we choose to do anything more than that, we obviously will need to inform our investors,” he said. “Whether or not we choose to do that, or feel comfortable doing that, we can’t talk about.”<br/>

American Airlines was working Thursday to rebook customers as one of its regional carriers grounded most of its planes. American subsidiary PSA Airlines had canceled 194 flights as of Thursday afternoon, according to flight tracker FlightAware, under the American Eagle name. "Out of an abundance of caution, PSA Airlines has temporarily removed most of its aircraft from service in order to complete a necessary, standard inspection on the nose gear door," American spokesperson Derek Walls said. "We are working with PSA and the (Federal Aviation Administration) to immediately address the issue. We are working with our customers to arrange new accommodations on other flights, and we are working to return the impacted aircraft to service." The FAA said that the carrier removed a number of its Bombardier regional jets from service after discovering a maintenance issue that the airline voluntarily disclosed to the agency. PSA wrote in a tweet Thursday: "Most of our aircraft have temporarily been removed from service to complete a standard inspection. We’re working to resolve the issue and sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience." <br/>