American "is going to focus" on the Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte and Washington, D.C. hubs, where its operations have a pre-tax margin of 13.1 percent, compared with the system average of 7.5 percent, Isom said at the Cowen and Company transportation conference. American said recently it would scale back less profitable flights from Chicago to China.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert; Editing by Paul Simao)