American Airlines' parent company told its employees Wednesday that it does not plan to end its pension plans as part of its bankruptcy restructuring, but instead hopes to freeze them.

The approximate 130,000 airline employees affected will be able to keep their existing pensions but will not earn additional benefits. The proposal will include American's ground workers and flight attendants but not members of its pilots' union.

AMR, which owns American, filed for bankruptcy in Nov. 2011 and has four employee pension plans with assets of approximately $8.3 billion and obligations of $18.5 billion.