Briefs

Joining its bigger U.S. peers, American Airlines is cutting back the number of flights it offers this fall and winter to cope with a weak economy, more pilot retirements, and higher fuel costs. For the last three months of the year, the carrier is trimming the number of available seats by 3 percent from 2010. American has seen a tenfold jump in pilot retirements in the past two months as workers sought to protect the value of their retirement funds, which are partly indexed to the stock market. On Oct. 3, shares of the airline’s parent, AMR, fell as much as 41 percent, the most since 2003, due to growing concerns that the carrier would be forced to declare bankruptcy.

Four of the biggest U.S. banks are wooing top customers with cheap cash even as they add fees for other services. Banks are mailing out offers that allow their most creditworthy customers to transfer balances onto credit cards with rates as low as 0 percent. JPMorgan Chase is offering select credit-card holders $5,000 at 0 percent for up to 15 billing cycles, while Bank of America is dangling a teaser rate of 0 percent through June 2012. Wells Fargo and Citibank are offering similar deals.