American Airlines Inc. will cut 1,300 aircraft mechanics jobs as well as 200 management and support jobs in its maintenance area, part of the carrier's plan to cut close to 7,000 jobs this year, the carrier confirmed Friday.

The Fort Worth-based airline previously said it would eliminate up to 200 pilot positions and 900 flight attendant positions as it reduces its workforce to go along with an 8 percent cut in capacity later this year.

"We've got an uphill battle to keep costs down in the face of our capacity reductions, and unfortunately reduced capacity means we need less people to run the airline," Gerard Arpey, chairman and chief executive of American and its parent company, AMR Corp., said Wednesday.

As of June 30, AMR had 85,700 jobs on a full-time equivalent basis.

An 8 percent reduction would equal 6,856 jobs.

The maintenance organization learned of the approximately 1,500 job cuts in a letter sent Thursday.

"We do not yet know the exact number of positions that will be impacted," American wrote in the letter. "We are still working through that analysis."

The 1,300 mechanics jobs total about 10 percent of the 13,000 aircraft mechanics represented by the Transport Workers Union, the union for more than 26,000 employees total.