Interesting tidbits from the AMR/American Airlines bankruptcy case

When a company files for Chapter 11 protection under the federal bankruptcy code, it has to disclose a lot of things. That’s true for AMR, American Airlines and the various other subsidiaries.

Some of those things are interesting, important or both. Many of the items disclosed are neither. But here are some of the things we learned in papers filed late Monday with the bankruptcy court in New York that is handling the AMR and American cases.

First, Gerard Arpey made $981,742 in the 12 months leading up to the filing, including salary, benefits, retirement contributions, etc.

Also, the two AMR board members who quit during 2011 did a lot better financially than the board members who stayed. When you leave the board, you get to cash out any stock or stock-based compensation.

You’ll notice these numbers are lower than what you see in the proxy. That’s because it measures that they actually were paid, not the hypothetical values assigned to stock options, stock appreciation rights, etc., that made assumptions on what those awards would be worth in the future.

For another thing, we learn that in the previous 12 months, American Airlines spent more than $12 million on lawyers and others consultants related to bankruptcy. The biggest recipient was its lead bankruptcy law firm, Weil Gotshal Manges, with $7,665,000.