The President of the American Airlines pilots union favors merger discussions that would have another airline take over the carrier. Three months ago his union rejected declaring no confidence in CEO Robert Isom and sought a meeting with the board, but the board refused to meet.
Now, the union President says he’s taking meetings with Wall Street analysts and journalists promoting their view that:
- American management lacks a long-term strategy
- The status quo is unacceptable
- They’re open to “any path forward” (like mergers) that improve the airline.
We have seen little in terms of vision, culture change, and operational improvements to believe that meaningful positive progress can be achieved in an acceptable timeframe.
This is prompted by United CEO’s public acknowledgment that he pitched a merger – and he “encourages” American’s pilots to read Kirby’s message on how “such a merger would be transformative for both airlines and how it could withstand regulatory scrutiny.”
He says American management keeps asking whether anyone is tralking to them about a takeover plan. “That answer is, ‘Yes.'” And he wants American’s board to consider these proposals.
There are a number of motivations for this. There’s a combination of sincere belief that overthrowing management would lead to greater profits, which means (1) more profit sharing under their contract and (2) more resources to clai in their next negotiation, and the pilots union is in the midst of its own internal power struggle and merger battle so leadership needs to look aggressive and confrontiational to their base.
A large faction of union members are looking to merge their independent union with the Air Line Pilots Association. A year and a half ago, a union President who opposed merging with ALPA was recalled.
In other words, the message from the American Airlines pilot union is both true and a reflcetion of its internal politics. But it’s also a problem for the airline, where the water cooler talk of replacing the CEO has died down compared to the fever pitch of three months ago.
And it’s somewhat ironic because the airline seems to finally have a vision and strategy for the first time in 12 years. The CEO isn’t out selling that vision to employees, investors and customers. But the strategy appears to be there – to make investments in customer experience so that customers prefer (or at least do not avoid) the carrier. And it comes at precisely a time that Delta may be faltering.
Can’t blame them for trying, but this seems more performative than anything. (Ooh lala… a meeting with Wall Street… and journalists… that’ll show Isom who’s boss… psh.)
Could be worse. You could still be flying 767s and hitting bakery trucks. Or, you could be failing to operate reliably, and just blame the weather, even when it’s perfect conditions… *cough* DELTA.
Why are the pilots “pussyfooting” around when the flight attendants came out and said no confidence in Robert Isom? If they want change come out and state it!
Robert Isom was never ever the guy to lead American. He has no leadership skills. The classic bean counter if you will.
No to airline mergers. Yes to airline closures and liquidations, allowing healthier competitors to buy what they want (and only what they want) on the open market.
Once again, an industry shakeout is long, long overdue. The longer they wait, the worse the pain will be.
Here’s a path forward: lock out the unions. Hire back only employees that are competent and actually want to do the job. Short term pain for sure, but it’s the only way out of this union death spiral jobs program.
What do I know, but I would imagine that the Board is going to evaluate Nat Pieper over the next ~2 years or so as a potential CEO candidate. Is he leading the AA/Alaska revenue sharing talks given his Alaska / Oneworld background? Even if Isom did not have the Board in his pocket, why would the Board push for a new CEO in 2026? A new CEO today would be saddled with high fuel prices and a 100% focus on debt paydown. Better to announce a new CEO in, say, 2028 when fuel prices hopefully have declined and there’s only a 90% focus on paying down debt.
Alaska should buy American.
@Mantis — You literally abandoned us for Asia. Stop attacking American workers on here.
Unlike DL and WN labor, AA and UA labor have long engaged in attempts at publicly shaming their mgmt when the companies failed to perform to labor’s expectations. As much as some want to argue that being successful doesn’t matter, labor benefits or pays the price depending on how financially successful airlines are.
UA didn’t begin to turn itself around because of labor -mgmt discord but because the board and Oscar Munoz realized that UA needed to change and he set up the company for success.
AA mgmt has come to realize they need to change just as WN has come to the same conclusion. Every other airline is now pushing the same premium revenue strategies that DL developed and UA has copied so far to better success than any other airline besides DL.
AA labor wants the company to succeed more but they surely – if they think for even a nanosecond – know that AA employees would be badly hurt in a merger w/ any other carrier. AA’s underperforming hubs would be shrunk or disposed of while other airlines would swoop in take AA’s best jobs – including its flying from successful southern hubs.
APA can’t be taken seriously against a lot of people in it wanting to merge w/ ALPA; throwing in a merger with UA as a good idea shows that it is actually AA mgmt that has a far more credible plan to get the company and its employees back on track.