Legendary investor David Bonderman owned significant stakes in Continental Airlines and America West. He’s passed away, and former American Airlines CEO Doug Parker offered remembrances co-hosting this week’s Airlines Confidential podcast.
Parker offered that when he was acquiring US Airways as CEO of America West in 2005, David Bonderman no longer had a financial interest in the Arizona-based airline. However he called Parker three or four times, and urged him to name the combined airline America West rather than US Airways. And Parker concedes Bonderman was right.
- US Airways was the larger, more national airline with a more prominent brand as part of Star Alliance.
- It seemed obvious that US Airways would be the surviving brand, but Bonderman counseled against it. US Airways had a toxic culture, and rebranding as America West would give them a fresh start.
When we did the America West – US Airways merger.. he called me.. three or four times telling me that we should name the combined company America West Airlines not US Airways. N one else said that. None of our advisors, none of our marketing team said that was a good idea. I didn’t think that was a good idea.
Credit: randomduck via Wikimedia Commons
Parker thought America West sounded regional, while US Airways “sounded like an airline that flew around the United States.” And he noted that US Airways was twice as big so they’d “have to paint twice as many planes.”
That may be the most Doug Parker reason ever to keep the US Airways name. When he took over American Airlines, he let employees vote on whether to keep the new American livery or revert to the old one, he said, because the decision didn’t matter. But since he wanted to save money, they were only going to get to vote on the tail.
Bonderman thought that US Airways, after two bankruptcies, furloughs, and various strategies and CEOs, “had this attitude.” And Parker said, “David was right” and that “if we’d have called it America West Airlines we wouldn’t have had that issue at least” that it would have been easier to change the culture.
In fact, America West management actually never managed to complete the merger with US Airways until after doing the 2013 merger with American. They ran separate airlines “US East” and “US West.” Their pilots even created a new union focused on damaging legacy America West pilots rather than negotiating aggressively against the company.
American Airlines is sometimes derided as “America West dba American Airlines,” since America West-run US Airways took over that larger carrier too and ran it, some say, as a regional low cost airline. I’ve written “you can take management out of Tempe, but you can’t take Tempe out of management.”
I guess I was one of the minority that actually liked America West when I flew them. Never once had an issue, and I found the FA’s to be as upbeat and positive as WN.
Guess I got lucky on my flight experiences?
And frankly, I LOVED their paint scheme. My only issue was DUI Dougie running the show.
Yes Steve FAs and the PHX agents were a great upbeat bunch. Remember back around 04 how much they stood out attitude wise.
The onboard product wasn’t biz traveler ready or affluent discretionary flier ready compared to the rest of the majors at the time. Remember the legroom in first…and plastic cups, etc
It’s accepted by many AA PLT’a during Parkers years that he was an idiot
Since US West took over AA and US airways they have driven the airlines into the ground. AA used to have a good business product. Now it is all about cost controls but there seems to be no real business plan or leadership. AA is like a rudderless behemoth on a coarse to no where. What is their product? What is their business plan?
And the financials show it. AA is not doing very well. They are relying on their route structure as a premium product while forgetting about their service. Broken seats, no seat back video, charge for everything. Are they transitioning into Spirit? Because we can see that hadn’t turned out well.
Delta has the best product in the air right now with United a close second. It’s very professional and they have the routs with a business plan to match. They are both in their game with little tweaks here and there to improve.
I grew up in AZ so I flew AWA a lot – was loyal through US->AA (but left for United about two years ago I had enough).
Anyways it was always fun on a AA flight to guess what airline a given FA was from – AWA was always easy to pick upbeat and engaging.
Too bad Spirit and Frontier were already taken.
Well, Doug is absolutely wrong and although not incompetent ruined the alliance due to his inability to be honest and equitable. For example, allowed his pilots ( American Worst) to be paid substantially higher than the USAirways pilots, allowed criminal activity from his pilots as they sabotaged many flights knowing USAirways pilots would be flying the aircraft after them, and even allowed his pilots to use the term, “scab” when addressing the other side. This was always perplexing since, Doug sent hundreds of his pilots to Ansett airlines to do exactly that during their strike in 1989. Of course, his buddy at Ansett, Rupert Murdoch took good care of him. Since then, two others from America West have succeeded him at running American. Scotch Kirby, now doing a fine job at United, and totally inept Robt. Isom now doing a fabulous job of destroying American. Go figure, and a huge contributor to our next dictator and chief. We will all now get what we deserve. Thank you.. D.B. and chief…….Sincerely, Aldo B.
Loved America West!
I flew them as often as I possible could.
Hated US Air, Despise American Airlines
What a total loss!!
As a former HP employee, I absolutely loved it. The culture and teamwork was second to none. Cactus will always live on.
Back in the late ’80s/early ’90s I worked for AWA and my wife worked for AA. We at AWA always felt as though we were looked down upon by those at AA, UA, CO, etc. There was an attitude. And I can sort of see why. They had been around the block for quite awhile, many had been through deregulation, they were unionized, and we were the low-cost startups with a bunch of young, fun-loving kids working there, many of us with multiple jobs or (like me) trying to make a few bucks while working towards a college degree.
Unlike many of my coworkers, I was familiar with both cultures. My wife had started with a smaller airline that later was absorbed by AA. She rose through the ranks at AA. We fraternized with her cohorts, went to their parties, etc. I don’t think any single one of them ever would have believed that AWA would someday absorb US Airways and then merge with AA, especially after AWA’s bankruptcy troubles in the early ’90s.
It kind of reminds me of “The little train (plane) that could.” AWA’s employees, system wide, loved their employer, and to this day still affectionately remember their time there. Sure, there were disagreements about management style and policy changes, etc., but overall the vast majority of us loved our airline. I wish Parker would have kept the AWA name.
After I graduated from college I left AWA and got a “real” job, one that could support a family, but was lacking in so many other ways. The time I’d spent at AWA was the best of my entire working career, in terms of happiness, friendships and camaraderie. To this day, over 30 years after I left AWA, I am still in contact with those I worked with there. We still get together occasionally, reminisce about the great times we had working together and unanimously agree that it was the most enjoyable job we’d ever had. And that’s not unusual. Many former AWA employees from all over the country feel the same. The culture just couldn’t be beat. I can’t say that about any other job I’ve ever had.
Many of my former AWA coworkers who continued on after the AA merger say it was never the same after that. I can’t help but think that keeping the AA name had something to do with that. They were very sad to see “their” airline vanish into the clouds, as was I, even if it was only a name change. And I say “their airline” because many of them had a stake in the company as employee/owners of AWA stock before it was annihilated by the 1991 bankruptcy. But even those who had no stake in the company felt a sense of pride in working there. It was hard not to. Most of us had never had a job we loved as much as that one.
Parker should have spent more time in jail after his third DWI. If a employee or crew member could not cover their shift (or flight) they would have been fired. But Parker somehow became the CEO of American Airlines.
Parker should keep his comments to himself. This article is like saying that he should have married a different wife because his drinking buddy told him to.
Airlines seem to have a habit of placing the management of the failing (or mismanaged) company in charge when merging, ie: CAL/UAL, AA/USA instead of the better(of two evils) management team. This results in a much larger poorly run airline culture with bickering amongst the unhappy employees which translates into unhappy passengers.
Interesting comments all. I started with AWA in 1983. I saw the first airplane land from the top of terminal 3. AWA was a great place to work when it came to the employees. I’ve made lifetime friendships. But, I’m a union guy and their plans of how to run an airline take a different view. Our wages were rock bottom of the industry. Profit sharing what a joke, a third of my salary never happened. Pensions please!! Many promises made to this young workforce that never developed. Ever!! I’m still in the industry 40 years later. I work with many that enjoy pensions from US/AA. There pensions might have been reduced due to business plan changes via bankruptcies but the still get something. I get zero ,nada, nothing I took my own journey to put a financial plan together for myself that will benefit my retirement. So in closing AWA has great memories for me.. personal relationships a score of 10.. Management decisions I give a 2..
And Doug I didn’t mention much about you in this comment due to your late arrival, And I felt that other guy Franke something that tried to kill AWA didn’t need to be presented here. Doug wish you were here the one you left in charge is failing.. Just thought you should know..
Bruce Epstein,
When it comes 2 managing an airline, most pilots r idiots.