Travel News

Inside American Airlines Now on DVD

Locations in this article:  Los Angeles, CA

American AirlinesInside American Airlines: A Week in the Life, a two-hour documentary featuring unprecedented access to the world’s largest airline, is out on DVD today!

Find out more about the DVD and check out sneak preview video clips at Inside American Airlines.

Reported and hosted by Peter Greenberg, who received access to virtually every department within American Airlines for one week, the CNBC special documents the American Airlines’ operations that carry nearly two million passengers each week and operate more than 4,000 flights each day.

“CNBC cameras had a chance to capture a view of American Airlines that most travelers have never before seen,” said Josh Howard, CNBC Vice President of Long Form Programming.”We were allowed unfettered access to all aspects of the airline’s operations. The result is a first-ever look at what goes into running an extraordinarily complicated business.”

Inside American Airlines features segments such as the airline’s near-obsessive efforts to save fuel, the sometimes tense relationship between management and labor, how flight attendants now receive martial arts training to protect against terrorists, the intricate procedure of maintaining airliners, the varied kinds of cargo that goes into the belly of a passenger jet, and the minute-by-minute drama of controllers coping with issues like airplanes with mechanical problems, a passenger who becomes ill during a flight, and thunderstorms wreaking havoc on operations.

American Airlines, which agreed it would have no editorial input into the program, also showed CNBC exactly how it prices tickets and how it determines which of its flights are profitable, and which are not.

“Each segment of this program will have even the most experienced flyers saying ‘I didn’t know that,'” says Greenberg.

The DVD will also features twenty minutes of never-before-seen bonus footage including “View from the Cockpit” which takes viewers along on Flight 1, a morning flight from New York’s JFK to Los Angeles’ LAX. CNBC was granted permission to mount tiny cameras in the cockpits of some of American’s jetliners in order to capture the action on the flight deck, and the communications between the pilots and the control towers.

It is believed to be the first time a news organization has had takeoff-to-landing access to the flight deck of a commercial airliner since the attacks of 9/11.

In addition, included in the bonus features is “The CEO Speaks” where Greenberg interviews AMR CEO Gerard Arpey on money-making ideas American tried that didn’t work, American’s perilous financial situation immediately after 9/11, what changes he’d like to see in the security process, and more. It is Arpey’s first one-on-one television interview.

The Executive Producers of Inside American Airlines: A Week in the Life are Mitch Weitzner and Peter Greenberg. Josh Howard is the Executive in Charge of Production and Vice President of Long Form Programming.

Purchase the DVD today at the NBC Universal Store.