Boston, MA 07/08/2014 (wallstreetpr) – American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) filed a lawsuit in Tarrant County District Court against Inflight Production USA Inc. In the lawsuit, the carrier is seeking to have the court declare that the responsibility of meeting royalty obligations for its in-flight entertainment lies with the provider.
The airline signed Inflight in September 2012 to provide various entertainments such as movies, music and television shows for its passengers. However, it appears Inflight has not been making royalty payments to Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), promoting the electronics company to contact American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) over the matter.
Sony took the carrier to task over unpaid music license, which amounts to an infringement of copyright. However, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) maintains that Inflight is responsible for the royalty payments and it wants the court to side with its position on the issue.
Inflight has not commented on the development.
Copyright infringement
American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) is not the only airline coming face to face with Sony over music license fees, the electronics company sued United Airlines in October over copyright violation. The failure by United to meet its part of the deal in paying music royalties affected artistes such as Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley.
An honor to Bob
Meanwhile, American Airlines announced a new operations center at 4700 American Blvd., Fort Worth, to be built in honor of its long-serving executive Robert “Bob” Baker. The new state-of-the-art operations center will bear the name of the respected executive who served the airline for 35 years. He retired in 2002 and died a year later.
The new facility is also part of the ongoing integration of the merger between American Airlines and US Airways, which led to the formation of the largest airline in the world last December. As such, the new facility will serve as the company’s global hub and will house more than 1,400 employees.
American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) said the facility is expected to be up and running by 3Q2015, and it will handle 1 million flights a year and more than 140 million customers in the same period.
