American Airlines, American Association of People With Disabilities Announce Winner of First Altitude Award

American Airlines, American Association of People With Disabilities Announce Winner of First Altitude Award

New Award Recognizes Texas Lions Camp and Its Depiction of People with Disabilities in Television Advertising

FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The people have spoken: the Texas Lions Camp's television advertisement has been selected by online voters as the winner of the first Altitude Award, created by American Airlines and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) to honor the best U.S. television ad featuring positive portrayals of people with disabilities.

The winning advertisement, "Different Abilities Not Like the Others," highlights the captivating spirit of the Texas Lions Camp, which is designed for children with disabilities. The ad was chosen from among the top five finalists by voters who visited the online gallery at www.aa.com/altitudeaward. As winner of the Altitude Award, the spot will run gratis for one month onboard selected American Airlines flights.

"Through this commercial, the Texas Lions Camp is helping encourage acceptance of people with disabilities," said Roger Frizzell, American's Vice President Corporate Communications and Advertising. "At American Airlines, we celebrate the uniqueness of every individual, and we are honored to have the winning Altitude Award television commercial as part of our inflight programming."

"We are thrilled to accept the first Altitude Award," said Mollie Fabian, Vice President - Boxcar Creative with Texas Lions Camp. "It means so much for us to be able to give children with special needs this type of camp experience for one week each summer, and we really wanted to capture their wonderful spirit in our television advertising."

"By participating as voters in the Altitude Award, consumers became a powerful voice of change for people with disabilities," said Andrew Imparato, President and CEO of AAPD. "Congratulations to our winner for taking such a positive step in the use of advertising to show how a camp can be so important for children with disabilities. We thank all of our entrants and look forward to seeing other companies following their example."

The Texas Lions Camp was established specifically to provide, free of charge, a camp for Texas children with a range of disabilities, regardless of race, religion, or national origin. The "Different Abilities Not Like the Others" advertisement showcases the camp and its ability to create an atmosphere that encourages a can-do philosophy, maximum personal growth, and self-esteem. Additional information is on the Texas Lions Camp Web site, http://www.lionscamp.com/.

While the Texas Lions Camp received the majority nod during the Sept. 23 - Oct. 23 voting period, other finalists included Cars for Courage, Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas, CSS-Online.org, and Coca-Cola.

The winning commercial will air during January 2010 and will be offered as part of American's inflight entertainment programming. The airline offers inflight entertainment on its Boeing 737, 757, 767 and 777 fleets, which serve selected international and domestic routes.

American Airlines features NBC Universal for inflight broadcast content, in addition to movies, depending on flight duration. All domestic programming is offered in English and Spanish when available. Internationally, programming is offered in English and the local language when available. NBC Universal produces four exclusive 90-minute programs each month for American, featuring television shows from NBC, USA, Bravo, SCI FI, Oxygen, MSNBC and CNBC, as well as films from Universal Pictures and programming from NBC News, NBC Sports and other divisions of the company.

About American Airlines

American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection® serve 250 cities in 40 countries with, on average, more than 3,400 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning Web site, AA.com®, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve nearly 700 destinations in more than 130 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, We know why you fly and AAdvantage are registered trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE:AMR)

About The American Association of People with Disabilities

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country's largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change - politically, economically, and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To learn more about the AAPD, visit www.aapd.com.

   AmericanAirlines®  We know why you fly®   Current AMR Corp. releases can be accessed on the Internet.   The address is http://www.aa.com  

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: gloria.midkiff@aa.com

Source: American Airlines

CONTACT: Andrea Huguely of American Airlines, Corporate Communications,
Fort Worth, Texas, +1-817-967-1577, mediarelations@aa.com; or Rebecca Panoff,
AAPD, Communications Manager, +1-202-521-4307, rpanoff@aapd.com

Web Site: http://www.aa.com/
http://www.lionscamp.com/
http://www.aapd.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment