July 7 (Bloomberg) -- American Airlines parent AMR Corp., studying a spinoff or sale of its American Eagle regional unit, said it gave financial and other data to ``interested parties.''

The materials were provided ``in early May,'' AMR said in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released today, without identifying the information or those who received it. AMR said it still expects to finish a deal this year.

``The company anticipates that the form of the transaction will likely be either a spinoff to shareholders or a sale to a third-party buyer,'' Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR told the SEC.

The disclosure marks the first public signal of interest in Eagle since AMR said Nov. 28 it would divest the unit amid investor demands for U.S. airlines to sell assets to boost their share prices. A 58 percent jump in jet-fuel prices since then is pushing the U.S. industry to possible record losses this year.

The document was part of an exchange of letters between the company and the regulatory agency over portions of AMR's 2007 annual report.

``We've publicly stated that we are exploring several different forms of divestiture for American Eagle,'' Mary Sanderson, an AMR spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. ``Information has been made available to interested parties as part of this evaluation process.''

`Continuing Involvement'

The carrier also said in the letter that it ``has not yet determined which assets are expected to be disposed of, transferred or sold,'' and that AMR ``will have significant continuing involvement with AMR Eagle after the divestiture.'' As a result, Eagle won't be classified as a discontinued operation, AMR said.

AMR most likely will have to spin off Eagle into a separate company with its own stock instead of selling it because record oil prices have hurt airline valuations, said James M. Higgins, a Soleil Securities Corp. analyst in Solebury, Pennsylvania.

Eagle will end service to five cities and reduce flying in Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, St. Louis and New York under a plan unveiled last month to ground jets and cut capacity because of rising fuel costs. AMR said last week it would eliminate about 8 percent of its workforce, or 6,840 jobs, when the company reduces capacity in the fourth quarter.

The carrier said earlier it plans to ground as many as 40 regional jets at Eagle and retire 35 Saab turboprop aircraft as it trims seating capacity 11 percent.

AMR rose 3 cents to $4.86 at 4:00 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has fallen 65 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at maryc.s@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 7, 2008 16:08 EDT