Patrick Quayle, the chief architect of where United Airlines flies, took a shot at American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, “I think we can all agree Robert Isom is not Robert Crandall.”
That was during meetings discussing and debating how the FAA would limit flying at Chicago O’Hare. They ultimately limited flights based on 2025 schedules which meant the biggest cuts have to come from United Airlines. That’s a win for American.
American will cut around 40 flights, while United will cut around 200 from its announced schedule. United was building purely strategic flying, meant to bury American and take gates away, with 198 more flights in summer 2026 than 2025 – 34% growth. They won’t be able to do that.
The FAA has now released redacted transcripts of their meetings on limiting flights at Chicago O’Hare. And Quayle, United’s Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Alliances, trashed Ameircan’s CEO while arguing (.pdf) that the carrier made poor choices in where they built back their flying after the pandemic.
American, if you look, chose to grow Austin; they chose to grow Charlotte, Miami, Dallas; they chose not — they chose not to grow Chicago. And that – that matters….
American Airlines retired too many planes during the pandemic. They retired their fleets of Airbus A330s, Boeing 767s, 757s, and Embraer E195s. They didn’t have the aircraft necessary to fully build back all of their hubs. And there was a pilot shortage, with airlines having paid pilots to retired early while not fully feeding the pipeline of new ones, so getting small regional jets flying was a challenge too.
That was a decision that constrained them, but it was made while Isom’s predecessor was CEO. He was airline President at the time, he wears it too. And it made sense given constraints at the time to put their assets where they’d perform best. With traditional business travel slower to return, that wasn’t Chicago.
Quayle lays out the consequence of that decision, but it’s not quite fair either:
So it’s not accidental that they have less share. And because of the choices they made, that they chose, that were endorsed by their CEO and their board, they lost gates.
American Airlines lost gates at Chicago O’Hare because the airport re-allocated gates based on historical flying – but they did so earlier than committed, and earlier than they’d put in writing they would.
- Under the Airport Use and Lease Agreement, there was a ‘ramp up period’ that started once the city allocated new gate space and those assignments had been in place at least 12 months.
- And then the annual redetermination couldn’t happen until April 1 of the year after that ramp-up period ends.
- The final L‑Stinger gate didn’t become operational until March 14, 2025, so the ramp-up period could not start before then, would run until March 14, 2026, making the earliest next redetermination date April 1, 2027.
This is all detailed on page 18 of American’s lawsuit. They weren’t granted a restraining order stopping the redistribution. After all, the harm from Chicago violating the agreement is ‘compensable’ (they could get paid). But clearly they expected Chicago to keep its word.
In my view – and I’ve been yelled at by “shadow mayor” Jason Lee over this – is that this was moved forward to placate United which is based in Chicago and which they want to keep based in Chicago, given the potential to move headquarters to Denver.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t change that American expected 2026 flying to determine gates. Chicago went and reallocated gates to United’s benefit using 2024 flying, when American didn’t have the opportunity even under its lease agreement to access all of its planned gate capacity (and when they didn’t have the planes to do it, either).
So while I have my disagreements with Robert Isom’s decisions and priorities, this very personal dig at him seems unfair and classless.
American needs a significant presence in O’Hare because its one of the most important credit card spending markets in the country, and the credit card is where they make their money. Capping flying based on 2025 schedules means American should gain back some gates next year. They’ll always be number two to United, but they can’t get pushed out of the airport as United’s CEO Scott Kirby had promised.
(HT: @DavidShepardson)
UNITED RISING
Yes he is no Bob Crandell and put AA into a difficult position that will take years to fix. But Bob Crandall ran an airline in a very different environment. The real issue is that airlines have created tons of excess unprofitable capacity and have needed to find ways to offset those losses.
(One way AA could make Gary feel better… is to re-grant him Concierge Key…)
@George Romey — You still got your Key, or did they take it away from you?
Regardless what Quayle has to say, mixing United with American would be like mixing oil with water. It wouldn’t mix. However, now that President Trump is in agreement this match is unsuitable… Democrats raging with TDS will be all over themselves and thus suddenly on board with a United Airlines – American Airlines merger. Should be fun to watch 🙂
Fair take contractually. But the amount of Chicago flying in what was supposed to be a non-testing year was still inconsistent with driving credit card spend. NYC where AA is fourth by number of flights is further evidence that AA management did not understand the business they were in.
Isom was never the right guy. Parker picked the wrong person.
Great article. Personally, I’m a Delta fan and always will be but I’d love to see American give United a run for their money.
United leadership is so cocky and act as though they are the industry leader and innovator when all United has really done is replicated Delta’s innovations (look at history) and then deemed themselves as being in a class of their own.
What United has is probably the best route network of all US carriers but what they do not have is a track record of developing trends and innovations geared to provide a consistent experience for their customers. They also don’t have a workforce that demonstrates they are happy where they work.
I’m not myopic in my views of Delta or UA, for that matter but Kirby is so arrogant and delusional that it makes one wonder if there’s any substance behind it.
Patrick Quayle worked at American Airlines (and likely had many interactions with Isom) between 2007 and 2017.
My god this is an obsession. I hope they at least stop thinking about Isom and AA while in bed with their wives.
@ Gary — Never say never.
Blame Parker (Former AA CEO) for the mess at American. Parker and his USAIR guys (including Robert Isom) destroyed once a great airline.
@Connor — LOL.
That’s ignorant.. Shamone! Hee-hee!
It’s amazing to me that so many people are hoping that American Airlines gets liquidated.