Tag Archives for robert isom.
American Airlines released a shareholder presentation supporting its positions on votes at the carrier’s annual meeting. Most of the ink is spilled over CEO Robert Isom’s $31.4 million pay package, which consists in part of retro pay at a time that retro pay is the most contentious issue at the end of labor negotiations with flight attendants.
After American’s earnings call on Thursday, in prepared remarkets to the airline’s employees as a ‘State of the Airline’ event (a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing), Isom brought up his pay package and fumbled through an explanation. And as they say, when you’re explaining you’re losing. He came across as defensive and unsure of himself.
There’s no question that Isom is well-compensated compared to the airline industry as a whole (and American financially underperforms) and it’s especially controversial among employees when flight attendants haven’t seen a raise since 2019 while first and second-year Boston-based flight attendants qualify for food stamps.
American Airlines flight attendants, amidst union officer elections and ongoing wage disputes, are escalating their efforts to strike by confronting CEO Robert Isom and pushing for government mediation, despite upcoming negotiations and a previous rejection for a strike during the holiday season.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom was named the world’s best airline CEO. That may be debatable, but the airline’s board has awarded him a rich compensation package potentially worth over $26 million.
This win really does belong to the PR folks. While the publication doesn’t reveal its methodology, any reasonable ‘Best CEO’ evaluation has to look at the individual’s value add against the assets they’re working with.
Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja explains that their schedule is the product.
So it didn’t at all surprise me when airline CEO Robert Isom answered the question what is your favorite plane with “My favorite plane now is planes that deliver on time.”
With American Airlines CEO Robert Isom on the witness stand, government lawyers in the anti-trust trial trying to break up his airline’s partnership with JetBlue asked the executive about JetBlue’s “Mint” product – a lie flat business class that operates on certain domestic and short haul international routes (as well as on their transatlantic routes which are not part of the partnership).
Isom explained that he had know idea what Mint was, or what it entailed, never having flown it or paid attention to it, it seems.
One of the biggest mistakes American Airlines has made in the past several years is its new domestic product. They crammed more seats into planes, removed seat back entertainment screens, and now passengers board thinking they’re on old aircraft.
Ex-CEO Doug Parker greenlit the Torquemada-style seating program and didn’t even try his airline’s product until it was flying for about six months. It turns out they didn’t even build a mockup of it first to see how it would work for passengers and employees. New CEO Robert Isom has previously described needing to make the best of it, since they’re stuck it with it.
American Airlines has focused like a laser on “D0” – exact on time departures – over nearly all other priorities. That hasn’t always made them a reliable airline, but it’s led to numerous dysfunctions.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom signaled in his first earnings call that he’s shifting the focus of the airline from this metric to a broader set of priorities that will operate reliably while also taking care of customers.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
