Does American Airlines hire people with felonies?

What American Airlines has said

American Airlines has publicly committed to hiring people with criminal records: it is a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition (announced as a new member in April 2022), took the 2016 White House Fair Chance Business Pledge, and its careers site carries a footer line, shown on every American job posting we opened, saying it fully considers all qualified applicants including those with a criminal history. Its flight attendant FAQ puts fingerprinting, a background check, a drug screening and employment-history verification after the conditional job offer, and its ramp and mechanic postings list drug screening, background checks, fingerprinting or airport-badge checks. Federal TSA rules separately bar airline workers with certain recent convictions from jobs with secure-area access, which many airport and maintenance roles need.

• Second Chance Business Coalition member

  Listed as a member of the Second Chance Business Coalition.¹

• Scbc join announcement

  The coalition's April 26, 2022 release names American Airlines among seven companies that had recently joined, bringing membership to 42.²

• Signed the 2016 Fair Chance Business Pledge

  American Airlines is named among the companies signing the White House Fair Chance Business Pledge in April 2016. Its pledge text said it had banned the box and did not ask criminal-history questions until someone accepted an offer, and that it was running background checks as part of hiring. This is a 2016 statement; we haven't found a current American page repeating the timing.³

• Fair-chance statement in a job posting

  The careers-site footer, shown on every American Airlines posting page we opened (Houston, Hartford, New York LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and London), says American fully considers all qualified applicants including those with a criminal history. The sentence sits in the site footer, not in the job descriptions, and cites no fair-chance law; it appears the same way on Houston, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina postings.⁴

Does American Airlines do background checks?

American Airlines runs background checks after a job offer. American's job-applicant privacy policy says it may collect background-check information, including criminal records, if the applicant authorizes it and the law allows, and may run background checks as part of recruiting. Its flight attendant FAQ says candidates accept a conditional job offer first and then complete pre-employment requirements: fingerprinting, a background check, a drug screen and, in the hiring steps, verification of two years of employment history. In its 2016 pledge American said it did not ask criminal-history questions until someone accepted an offer; that is a dated statement, and the current flight attendant FAQ is the only current page we found that places the check after the offer. Ramp service agent postings list a pre-employment drug screen, a comprehensive background check and/or fingerprinting, and several mechanic and manager postings list FAA criminal background checks for secure-area access. American hasn't published who runs its checks or how far back they look.^3,5,6,7,8,9

• Criminal history
• Past jobs
• Drug screen

How long it takes: Flight attendants: pre-employment steps (fingerprinting, background check, drug screen) may take several weeks to complete.⁶

• How long a background check takes

Does American Airlines drug test?

American Airlines drug tests for some roles. American's flight attendant FAQ lists a drug screening among pre-employment requirements. The Houston and Hartford ramp service agent postings list a pre-employment drug screen, and the Boston and Chicago facilities mechanic postings say candidates must complete American's drug screening. The manager posting for New York and the ground-equipment mechanic postings for Los Angeles, Charlotte and Pittsburgh that we opened don't mention a drug test.^{6,7,8,10,11,12,13,14,15}

Rules for specific jobs

• Jobs with unescorted access to secure airport areas, screening, or checked-baggage and cargo duties (federal rule)

  (federal rule) Under TSA's rule for aircraft operators, 49 CFR 1544.229, an airline must make sure a fingerprint-based criminal history check does not show a disqualifying offense before giving a person unescorted access authority, screening duties, or checked-baggage and cargo duties. A disqualifying offense is a conviction, or a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity, for one of the listed crimes in the 10 years before applying, including certain felonies involving theft, burglary, fraud, bribery, violence or threats, and distributing or intending to distribute a controlled substance. This is a federal requirement, not American's own policy.⁹

• Mechanics and managers at airports (Los Angeles, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, New York LaGuardia postings)

  These postings say the person must pass FAA criminal background checks to qualify for unescorted access to airport security identification display areas (SIDA). The rule we opened that sets the check is TSA's 49 CFR 1544.229; the postings call it an FAA check.¹³

• Ramp service agents (Houston and Hartford postings)

  These postings list securing airport authority or customs security badges where applicable, a pre-employment drug screen, a comprehensive background check and/or fingerprinting, the ability to pass a U.S. Postal Service background check, and other conditions including a driver's license.⁷

• Flight attendants

  American's flight attendant FAQ says candidates accept a conditional job offer within three days of receiving it, then complete fingerprinting, a background check and a drug screen, which can take several weeks.⁶

Your rights, and how far back a check can go

• Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer must get your written permission before it gets a background report about you from a background screening company.^19,20,21
• Before an employer decides not to hire, keep, or promote you because of something in a background report, it must give you a copy of the report and a document called "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act."^19,20
• You have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your background report directly with the company that made it.^19,22
• The FCRA's seven-year limit does not apply to criminal convictions, so under federal law a conviction can show up on a background report no matter how old it is.^23,24
• Under the FCRA, background and credit reports generally cannot include arrest records, civil lawsuits, or civil judgments that are more than seven years old (or older than the statute of limitations, if that is longer).^23,25

Your full background check rights

Before you apply

• You can ask a background screening company for the information it has on you, and the CFPB keeps a list of consumer reporting companies, including employment screening companies, with their contact details.^19,22,26
• According to the Clean Slate Initiative, 14 states and Washington, D.C. have passed Clean Slate laws that meet its criteria for automatically clearing eligible records: Pennsylvania, Utah, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware, Virginia, California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Illinois, and Missouri, plus D.C.²⁷
• The Federal Bonding Program, run by the U.S. Department of Labor, lets states give employers free fidelity bonds that protect them against losses from a newly hired worker's dishonest acts, for job seekers with past justice involvement or in recovery from substance use.^28,29

See whether you can clear your record in your state