03/17/2003 - Updated 10:01 AM ET Many keep flying American despite bankruptcy fears FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) =97 Gospel singer Beverly Crawford is in the air= three=20 or four times a week, traveling to perform in California, New York and just= =20 about everywhere in between. She and her husband, Todd, prefer American=20 Airlines because they can fly directly to most of the concert cities, and=20 they like the expanded leg room and perks that go with being frequent=20 flyers. But they plan to change airlines if American goes bankrupt. "That's= =20 the scary thing =97 you don't know," Todd Crawford, his wife's manager, said= =20 this weekend at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. "They might=20 not offer the same routes or as many flights, or prices may go up. It would= =20 be a bad situation." Other travelers expressed similar concerns about=20 American, which is losing $5 million a day. Donald J. Carty, American's chairman and chief executive, has stressed that= =20 the company's focus remains on avoiding bankruptcy. "We still have the=20 opportunity to fix our structural problems and make ourselves into a=20 formidable competitor," Carty said in a recorded hot line message to=20 employees late last week. The world's largest airline is already=20 negotiating with pilots and is to start official meetings Monday with=20 flight attendants and ground workers. The airline has proposed $660 million= =20 in concessions from the Allied Pilots Association, $620 million from the=20 Transport Workers Union and $340 million from the Association of=20 Professional Flight Attendants. Those proposals are part of American's plan= =20 to slash annual costs by $4 billion. The new bargaining talks signal hope=20 for American, which traditionally has had a strained relationship with its= =20 five unions, including two for American Eagle. "At this point, it's a whole= =20 new game. The survival of the carrier is at stake," said George Price, the= =20 flight attendants union spokesman. The Dallas Morning News reported in its Saturday editions that officials at= =20 Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., the airline's parent company, hired well-known= =20 bankruptcy attorney Harvey Miller. AMR declined to comment. Miller has been= =20 involved in the nation's biggest Chapter 11 cases since the late 1970s,=20 including Continental Airlines, Texaco, Bethlehem Steel and Braniff=20 International. Miller formerly worked at the New York law firm of Weil,=20 Gotshal & Manges. He now is a managing director at the investment banking=20 firm Greenhill & Co. "Everybody in the bankruptcy bar knows Harvey," David= =20 W. Dykhouse, an attorney with the New York firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb &= =20 Tyler, told The Associated Press. "He was perhaps the most pre-eminent=20 bankruptcy lawyer for several decades." Miller worked with American two=20 years ago as it tried to acquire Trans World Airlines. The lawyer and his=20 associates advised TWA to go into bankruptcy, which made it a more=20 attractive purchase by freeing any buyer from its contract=20 liabilities. The hiring of Miller signals that American is seriously=20 considering filing Chapter 11 as an option, said Anthony Sabino, associate= =20 law professor at St. John's University. "It would be a last act of=20 desperation," Sabino told The AP. "If there is an airline out there that=20 can avoid bankruptcy, I think American is well-suited." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************