The company cut its fuel consumption by 0.3 percent year-on-year from 2,764 million to 2,756 million gallons. Despite the cut in usage, rising fuel costs caused AMR’s total fuel bill to rocket from $6.4 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in 2011. In 2010, fuel costs accounted for 29.3 percent of AMR’s operating expenses. By 2011 this figure had risen to 33.2 percent of expenses (see chart, below).

American Airlines has signed a letter of intent with Solena Fuels and is negotiating an agreement with other US carriers to purchase biofuel from recycled waste. Solena’s Northern California biomass-to-liquids plant will produce up to 16 million gallons of jet fuel per year from 550,000 tons of recycled agricultural and urban waste, the report says.

Earlier this month, the International Air Transport Association – an airline trade body that American is part of – called on governments to introduce policies aimed a fostering growth in the biofuels industry.

Waste reduction looks to have been a strong metric for AMR this year. From 2010 to 2011 the company cut its regulated waste production, which includes hazardous waste, universal waste, and other regulated waste, by 11.5 percent, from 1,338 tons to 1,185 tons.

AMR produced 3,552 tons of what it calls non-regulated waste, which only includes waste from maintenance and headquarters facilities, in 2011. The report does not provide figures for earlier years.

The company’s recycling increased 17.5 percent from 4,280 tons in 2010 to 5,030 in 2011. The company says that the increase in recycling reported can be partially attributed to better tracking of data.

AMR’s water footprint dropped 2.4 percent from 2010 to 2011. In 2010 the company consumed 546.2 million gallons. That figure dropped to 533.2 in 2011.