Short Takes: American AAdvantage Private-Labels BT Fund

The American AAdvantage mutual fund family is using an index fund managed by Bankers Trust New York Corp. for the retirement plan of another American Airlines affiliate.

Sabre Group, an airline reservations company recently spun off by American Airlines parent AMR Corp., wanted to offer its 8,200 employees an S&P 500 index fund in their 401(k) plan, which was not previously available in the AAdvantage mutual fund family.

The AAdvantage funds are managed by AMR Investments, Fort Worth, which actively picks stocks and has yet to run an index, or passive, fund on its own.

"As much as we're into active management, there is a market for index funds," said Bart Roberson, an AMR Investments vice president and director of marketing.

Mr. Roberson said AMR decided to private-label the Bankers Trust fund because there are considerations to make the American AAdvantage S&P 500 Index fund available to companies other than Sabre within a year.

"If we are going to have a product offered to our own employees, and to the public, it might as well have our name on it as opposed to somebody else's fund," he said.