Each quarter after the American Airlines earnings call, airline executives gather for a ‘State of the Airline’ talk with employees. Doug Parker reviewed the quarter, and included mention of retiring the MD80.
I wasn’t sad to see the MD80 go, as such. It was an old plane that was frequently subject to maintenance issues over the last several years.
I do miss the 2-3 coach configuration (it had only half the middle seats of a comparable aircraft) and the extra legroom (since American was retiring it they didn’t densify the aircraft). I did think it odd for American to celebrate the end of these customer benefits. Little did I know that they really were celebrating the end of the product that was offered by the old American.
When US Airways management took over at American that was the beginning of a series of events – such as devaluing AAdvantage, reducing the quality of food on board, a domestic standard product that included no more seat back entertainment, as well as less legroom throughout their aircraft.
And the retirement of the MD80 was symbolically the end to the old American. Doug Parker told employees,
We did retire the MD80s. That was a bittersweet day for a lot of us. But the reality is those airplanes had done their job for American Airlines. So we retired those. It’s I think nicely symbolic of where our company is. That airplane is part of what made American Airlines great, but we need to be moving forward not thinking backwards and we are doing just that with brand new airplanes, a much more efficient and customer-friendly fleet.
Instead of MD80s with more legroom in first class, Main Cabin Extra, and coach the new American is Project Oasis with poorly thought-through seats up front, seats with very little padding in back, and seats closer together across the board.
Whether Parker calls the planes more efficient because of how they burn fuel or because he can stack ’em, pack ’em and rack ’em into seats, it’s hard to credibly suggest they’re more customer-friendly.
Sadly, no current domestic First Class or Economy seat is as comfortable as those old MD80 seats. Then again, customer comfort is not important at USdbaAA.
” let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you are meant to be.”
-Kylo Parker
OR
Bring Back the mad dogs, its time to
Make American Airlines Great Again
Except the power and wifi situation on those was dreadful?? And they were reliability nightmares? So I’d say theres at least a modicum of truth to that
Doug Parker is a fool and has ruined AA as an airline.
Gary,
didn’t you write about all this last week but with a different headline title?
You keep beating a dead horse.
Find some new material man!
This assclown “writer” is a known AA hating hack. The MD80’s were old, worn out, tired and needed to go. AA has more planes on the way in the form of Airbus 321NX and soon A321XLR will begin arriving. There are also more 737s/787s coming. All these planes are newer and more efficient, longer range and more capacity. The airline has flaws but if you look at how the industry was in the 70’s compared to any airline of today and you say the same things about them. Times change not everything is going to be back the way it was.
Um- this is NOT AA or UsAirways! This is NOTHING but America West on a global scale. A regional airline that bit off way too much.
American Airlines used to be my favorite carrier, but that started changing when they went to the hub and spoke system. STL is my home airport, but if i want to go anywhere on American I have to go through DFW, or maybe ORD. From what I’ve been reading, AA isn’t the only legacy carrier that’s stuffing more people into each plane. They don’t care about passenger comfort, it’s how much profit they can make on each flight. And how does that please Wall Street.
It’s kind of funny that passengers complain about a crappy product when that’s exactly what they told executives what they wanted. They wanted bus like service on the cheap. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have remained loyal when SW, Jetblue and Spirit were eroding market share with cheap tickets and bare bones service. I don’t see the big deal as I was raised taking the bus many places. I’m not looking for an
“experience” on any airline. My destination will provide that. Get me there on time, safely with all my gear and your no 1 in my book. That’s where AA falters, fix that and all the whining disappears.
@Gary: 90% of customers do not want more legroom. They prefer lower fares, especially on flights of three hours or less. That is why nobody is spacing out coach seats or making them wider.
@L3 – source?
I highly doubt it’s 90% of all travelers do not care about service, amenities, or leg room/comfort.
I’d be interested in seeing the research to back your claim though.
@ChadMC: have you ever been on a plane? Why are 90%+ of the seats coach? What would happen if you started competing with an all-Business Class airline on the same route? You wouldn’t have any passengers. It’s been tried. People choose coach, and as tight as possible.
Thank God for Zoom and Google meetings. After almost 5 MM on assorted airlines (3.8 on AA) I try to vidcon and avoid air travel as much as possible nowadays.
State of the Airline — Doug Parker remains CEO. Nuff said.
I now flinch whenever I read “service enhancements”. That means a degradation in comfort or service, in my experience.
The author probably has a short position on AAL stock. Why single out American when all the airlines have done the same?
What do we expect from Parker and his gang! They drove us air into the ground now they are doing it to American. When will the board wake up! Are you listening Board?
@Doug’s brain – There are all business class planes leaving New York and arriving in London daily. There are also flights of all business class to Paris. These have been in service for quite some time. In fact, it was American Airlines that was first to offer (lets say) 90% premium seating on a 321 between NYC and SFO/LAX. A three class cabin domestically. That was so successful that the other majors followed suit.
To say that 90% of people choose coach I do not believe is a fair statement. Again, that’s some random plucked-from-thin-air number that is made up. I believe many people will choose a better product if given a reasonable alternative. Paying 5-10 times as much is not a reasonable alternative, particularly given the product offered. Give a better product and they might actually sell better seats. Delta has more first class seats as well as more than double the extra legroom seats than AA does. And they do sell them. Not only that, they do have a far superior product. People will fly AA if they are cheapest or if they are hub-restricted.
The MD80’S weren’t what was causing AA to go backwards, look in the mirror and you’ll have the answer..
@ChadMC: No. no. Irrelevant. Read the OP. It is about domestic travel. 90% choose coach. Any variation is a revenue blip. No more than 1% of total revenues. Why don’t we see ChadMC Air? They ignored these facts, put in lots of leg room, forced up costs, and went belly up.
Sad, but true.
Oh if we could just have Robert Crandall back!!