American Airlines announced this morning that CEO Doug Parker will retire on March 31, 2022, ending a 35-year career in aviation.
Robert Isom is the new President of American Airlines.
American Airlines has a picture of Robert Isom and Doug Parker.
There is a legacy of merging and running airlines.
Tom Horton, David Cush, and Ben Baldanza were analysts who went on to run airlines themselves, and they were all part of the "Brat Pack" at American Airlines.
The Brat Pack was a team of financial analysts who were trying to get to a more detailed level of information.
After six years as CFO of America West Airlines, DougParker was named Chairman and CEO of America West only a week before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City.
Depending on your perspective, it is at this point that Parker's legacy becomes controversial.
US Airways tried to take over Delta Airlines after merging with America West.
After American Airlines filed for Chapter 11 in 2012 US Airways acted swiftly, even going as far as securing tentative labor deals with American's labor groups.
The biggest merger made no sense.
It seems like a match made in heaven, an organization capable of making decisions to break the monolith structures in place at American Airlines to drive efficiency and scale.
US Airways and American Airlines could not have been worse.
The merger of US Airways and American was not welcomed by customers.
It is easy to point out that Doug Parker didn't know what to do once he had the world's largest airline, but it doesn't tell the whole story.
Through the correct lens, we can look at Doug Parker's legacy.
I am biased because I am a customer of American Airlines.
The world's largest airline was run by a man who wanted to make it profitable.
He did.
That could be the entire article, but it was simple for him.
He did a good job.
The glory days of aviation.
There had never been as much data about flight-by-flight profitability.
American Airlines' profits increased by 15 billion dollars between 2015 and 2019.
Then COVID struck.
Everything was ruined by carbon dioxide.
American's debt load was a millstone instead of the smart usage of debt it had been only months before.
It ruined everything for every airline and I can't say I'm responsible for American's losses.
The financial legacy of a man.
Doug was aggressive when he saw M&A opportunities.
It is possible that the best way of summing up the legacy is by saying that no matter the environment, he and his airlines survived.
His staff is his legacy.
I have met DougParker on a few occasions and he is very personable and fun to talk to.
The guy cared about the people he led the best he could.
His legacy with his customers.
The integration of the American Airlines AAdvantage and US Airways Dividend Miles programs was smooth, and I give credit where it is due.
If I am going to give credit, I need to hold the customer service legacy of DougParker to account.
There have been many moves made in the name of profitability that were bad for American Airlines customers.
The AAdvantage program of American Airlines has been eroded.
The American Airlines AAdvantage program was a leader in its field. Benefits were generous, status was straightforward, and award charts were clearly stated and the airline followed them.
It is not wrong for AAdvantage to be sliced and diced, but it is also not wrong for them to make those changes.
American doesn't seem to follow an award chart anymore, leaving friends of mine hanging in the middle.
The AAdvantage program used to be a salve for operational issues and a reason to keep flying the airline despite everything that annoyed me.
The cabins of airlines have been densified.
I will say it again: any airline CEO who believes that it is acceptable to put customers into a 3-4-3 seating layout on a sally on a long flight should only be able to say so immediately after the flight.
The seating capacity on the Boeing 757 went from 150 seats to 170 today.
It was nice to have a screen in the back of the plane, but it was also nice to have a screen for families who did not own a phone.
Sorry if you only own one device and have a lot of kids.
American did not follow United or Delta in installing seatback screens on their domestic mainline fleet.
The economy is divided into segments and basic economy.
Basic Economy is a war against the customer that airlines started because they didn't provide value for higher fares.
The operational margin is what it is.
They made a big bet that travel demand would return slowly and gradually.
American retired a lot of aircraft in 2020 due to COVID, but demand roared back in 2021, sooner than expected.
The credit card is being used.
I don't like the American Airlines credit card pitch, but it will not go away for a long time.
I have been woken at 5:45am by a credit card pitch, I have had a flight attendant invade my personal space and wave a credit card application between my face and the screen in front of me, and I have seen many flight attendants who didn't.
The legacy of Doug Parker was criticized the most.
I believe that most companies are capable of being good at one thing and that it is hard to be a full-service airline.
I see an airline that is trying to be many things when I look at American.
I see a low-cost carrier when I look at American.
I see a luxury carrier going toe-to-toe with the premier airlines in the world for coveted business passengers when I look at American Airlines.
The idea of a premium carrier is to get you there on time, even if you don't like the flight.
If you put low-cost carrier and luxury carrier at opposite ends of the spectrum, things like removing seatback screens and reducing AAdvantage to a complicated cash-back scheme tend to move things towards the low-cost carrier side more than the luxury side.
The threat of a miserable Basic Economy experience is more important than the fact that the regular Economy experience is not that much better.
My request to Robert Isom.
You are an industry leader because you have years of experience developing the nuance needed to carry this airline forward.
It leads to the critique of American Airlines, that their executive is betting on the fact that customers will stay with the airline even if they dislike the changes.
I understand that American is betting big on their schedule and customer inevitability providing a consistent revenue stream, and it is likely that it will work out for you, at least for a while.
Godspeed Doug.
Your career in aviation has spanned many years, and I wish you the best in retirement.
There are many images and stories from the retirement ceremonies of the American Airlines MD-80. You still haven't had enough of the MD-80.
September 9, 2019.
In American Airlines.
Doug Parker made a strange claim last week. If it comes to fruition, what he said would ruin American Airlines.
October 30,
In American Airlines.
I just flew on the Boeing plane that is going to be re-enter service later this month. You're curious about the plane and how it will come back into service.
December 2, 2020.
In American Airlines.
