AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, announced on Wednesday that it will reduce its workforce by about 8 percent in order to offset the rising fuel prices. Jeff Brundage, AMR’s senior vice-president disclosed in a letter that job cuts would be in proportion to overall system capacity reductions, which are expected to be 8 percent on the whole.

“While we are still working through the specific impact to employee work groups, both voluntary and involuntary, employee reductions commensurate with the overall system capacity reductions are expected company-wide as we reduce the size of the airline,” Brundage said.

AMR, currently employing 85,500 employees, said it would reduce domestic capacity by 11 percent to 12 percent as part of the system-wide cuts.

Earlier on Wednesday the airline said that up to 900 of its flight attendants, or 5 percent, would be eliminated. The elimination would be effective beginning August 31. An AMR spokesman said the company has notified the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the workers' union of the beginning date of the impending furlough.

AMR said that it will try to limit involuntary layoffs by offering a voluntary retirement option to many U.S.-based and San Juan-based employees who are at least 50 years old with at least 15 years of service.  

“Historically, AA has offered many employee groups voluntary options such as leaves-of-absence and stand-in-stead to reduce the impact of any involuntary reductions,” the company said.