American Pilots Write To Board, Demand "Decisive Change" From Management – One Mile at a Time
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American Airlines management is under a lot of pressure right now, with most parties not being terribly happy, from employees, to customers, to shareholders. The company’s profits are greatly lagging those of competitors, and management doesn’t have a clear vision for fixing those issues.
A little over a week ago, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents American’s 25,000+ flight attendants, called on the removal of CEO Robert Isom. Now the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American’s 16,000+ pilots, is also speaking out, though perhaps isn’t going quite as far as the other union.
In this post:
American’s pilot union has just published a letter that it sent to the American Airlines Group Board of Directors, to demand decisive action (thanks to JonNYC for flagging this). Here’s the latter:
The Allied Pilots Association Board of Directors, representing the more than 16,000 pilots of American Airlines, is writing to address the current operational environment, leadership approach, and long-term strategic direction of American Airlines. Our airline is on an underperforming path and has failed to define an identity or a strategy to correct course.
This assessment is not the result of a single interaction with management, an isolated operational disruption, or an individual earnings report; it is the result of persistent patterns of operational, cultural, and strategic shortcomings. Copying competitors’ initiatives and reactive repairs to the mistakes of the past is not a strategy to a future that closes the gap between American and our premium competitors, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.
For more than a year, APA has voiced concerns regarding management’s ability to turn the corner. Management has been given repeated opportunities to articulate a credible strategy and demonstrate measurable improvement. Those opportunities have passed without meaningful change. Despite repeated assurances, the operation continues to struggle under predictable stressors, exposing systemic weaknesses in preparation, execution, and decision making. These consequences are shouldered by our customers and employees every day.
These failures have negatively impacted the financial performance of our company and frustrated all stakeholders, to include shareholders, for far too long. While our premium competitors’ market capitalization has soared, American’s has soured. As their free cash flow is sustained and growing, ours is inconsistent and stumbles. As our competitors drive and arrive at investment-grade balance sheets, management’s miscalculations leave American trailing in that investment-grade effort as well. Management self-lauds their proclaimed industry leading “efficiency,” yet they fail to fully monetize the assets under their charge and leave us in a revenue trailing position compared to Delta and United.
As Directors, you are the fiduciaries of this organization and are charged with oversight, not optimism. American is no longer best in class financially, operationally, or in customer service. The pilots of American want our company to win and dominate the competition, not just survive and compete. Our careers are intrinsically tied to the fate and performance of this once-great airline.
Our members have been clear and consistent in their expectations regarding these issues and have lost confidence in management’s ability to correct course. We are not interested in symbolic gestures. We need decisive action. We require leaders who are willing, equipped, and empowered to get the house in order. Leadership must change the culture of this airline, define American’s business identity, develop a strategy to not just improve but to outperform our competitors, and restore pride across the organization. Anything less will result in the continued deterioration of the American Airlines brand.
We are prepared to explore these topics in greater detail. We respectfully request that APA President Nick Silva be afforded the opportunity to formally present our concerns to the AA Board of Directors. The pilots of American Airlines stand ready to support a future built on results, accountability, operational excellence, service to our customers, and respect for the frontline leaders who make this airline run.
The union has also published a video from the head of APA, discussing the letter and demands.
I’ve gotta give the union credit here, as this letter is very well written. It’s not overly dramatic, and for that matter, it doesn’t even explicitly call on management change, or the ouster of the CEO (unlike the letter from the flight attendant union). At the same time, it sort of infers that this is the only possible outcome for change.
I am in complete agreement with the union here — I’ve shared my take, so I won’t repeat myself (you’re welcome!). I understand the board at American Airlines Group has just generally been asleep for the past decade, so I’m curious if they finally take action.
Change is inevitable, it’s just a question of whether it happens sooner or later… there has never been a better time for the board to pick up the phone and call Ben Smith (which isn’t to say he’s interested, but…)
American Airlines pilots are the latest labor group to demand change from management. The union isn’t going so far as to specifically demand the CEO be fired, but is instead saying that members have”lost confidence in management’s ability to correct course.”
I think most reasonable people will agree with the union’s take, so I hope this pressure continues…
What do you make of this letter to the board from American’s pilot union?
They just need a new bold font all caps typeface to properly compete with United and Delta, and a more macho bird logo like in the 80’s. Leave lowercase to JetBlue, Southwest, and Alaska.
I wish the EXPs could organize to write a letter to both mgmt and the APA.
We all know only mgmt would accept the meeting, as Isom already has. Amazing that the pilots unions can make them look humble.
AA must clean house completely from the top down starting with Isom . Isom should have voluntarily resigned after three four years at the helm without progress, improvement and success. AA must hire a new CEO outside AA, who will bring in his new team and retire Isom’s old clique.
While at it, the new CEO shall gradually replace current Board members. But it may not work because the establishment is deeply entrenched in…
AA must clean house completely from the top down starting with Isom . Isom should have voluntarily resigned after three four years at the helm without progress, improvement and success. AA must hire a new CEO outside AA, who will bring in his new team and retire Isom’s old clique.
While at it, the new CEO shall gradually replace current Board members. But it may not work because the establishment is deeply entrenched in preserving and protecting more dominant group’s interests and overlooks the company’s overall interests.
There are two ways to eject him but the second choice is rarely successful. The Board of Directors has sole power to remove the CEO. As for the second route, only Icahn could pull it off as an activist shareholder but he is a billionaire. Icahn owned 20% of a company’s stocks and he leveraged his influence to compel the Board and CEO to adopt his reform demands. The company’s name escapes my memory. The flying public and employees are just the pawns to sustain the system that enriches and strengthens the wealthy and powerful. Unsure how private foreign airlines earn profits without experiencing the deepening distrust and antagonistic relations between management, namely the C-suite, and rank and file.
why resign when the board pays you tens of millions per year and expects no results? It’s a pretty great deal. Isom has been getting paid for awful operational and financial results for more than a decade. Must be a great way to make a living
You resign you get nothing. You get fired you get the rest of your contract. No one resigns.
I stopped flying AA a couple years ago. It had the most convenient route for me, it just made me sick of everything they took away, Cheap bast…s!!!
The pilot and FA unions squeeze the airline to the brink with bloated contracts and endless demands, then act shocked that management is “incompetent” because there’s no money left to hire or retain anyone competent. Shocking!
When you drain the company dry, you don’t get A-players. You get whoever couldn’t land a job in tech, consulting, private equity or other leading industries and settle for airline corporate until they can find something better.
This letter…
The pilot and FA unions squeeze the airline to the brink with bloated contracts and endless demands, then act shocked that management is “incompetent” because there’s no money left to hire or retain anyone competent. Shocking!
When you drain the company dry, you don’t get A-players. You get whoever couldn’t land a job in tech, consulting, private equity or other leading industries and settle for airline corporate until they can find something better.
This letter is basically that meme: shoot the guy in the chair… then turn to the camera and ask, “Who did this?”
Thank goodness you have the balls to defend the cause of the problems and shit on the soldiers. Very brave of you. “Pay the poors less!”
I hope this is sarcasm. Captains can top out at a half million a year and they have priority to a F class seat over Exec Platinum for an upgrade.
Unfortunately, AA has a history of short connection time on purpose, when they close the doors 15 minutes before take off and you are ONE minute late, AA then fills your seat with a higher paying fair. When you go through AA’s terminal, especially at DFW, just look at each gate long list of stand by passengers. You get bumped, sometimes you get a seat on a later flight but most of the time you…
Unfortunately, AA has a history of short connection time on purpose, when they close the doors 15 minutes before take off and you are ONE minute late, AA then fills your seat with a higher paying fair. When you go through AA’s terminal, especially at DFW, just look at each gate long list of stand by passengers. You get bumped, sometimes you get a seat on a later flight but most of the time you don’t. Its intentional, I stopped flying AA five years ago, and don’t regret it. Management doesn’t care about its customers !
Oh Bob W… you are so wrong.
That long list of standby passengers is primarily employees waiting to take an empty seat after all revenue passengers are checked in (and they can account for no shows). That list can also include revenue standbys who have priority—but not because they’re “higher paying” in the way you’re implying.
This is exactly how untruths spread.
If you paid attention, you’d see that all airlines have both employee and…
Oh Bob W… you are so wrong.
That long list of standby passengers is primarily employees waiting to take an empty seat after all revenue passengers are checked in (and they can account for no shows). That list can also include revenue standbys who have priority—but not because they’re “higher paying” in the way you’re implying.
This is exactly how untruths spread.
If you paid attention, you’d see that all airlines have both employee and revenue standby passengers—not just AA.
And if you’re showing up one minute before departure, yeah—you’re not getting on any airline (you become the NO SHOW). Your boarding pass tells you to be onboard 10 minutes before departure for a reason: so everyone is seated, and the flight can leave on time. The last-minute folks who do get accommodated are usually standbys, and sometimes connections when there’s a hold.
If you can’t reliably make short connections, then buy a ticket that gives you more time. I’m not in the business of sprinting between gates at DFW, ORD, or other mega-airports—I pay attention to my connections.
“As Directors, you are the fiduciaries of this organization and are charged with oversight, not optimism.”
Feels like mid 2000s United over at AA. Good luck shareholders.
The best thing that AA could do for their customers would be to immediately lay off half their flight attendants.
Let me guess, start with the black and brown ones? Like your Dear Leader’s immigration policy?
It is unserious and unhelpful to make such a blanket statement with regards to AA’s improvement. But it is very helpful giving us an insight to the type of person you are.
Umm, didn’t you just make a blanket statement by assuming he implied layoff should start with black and brown ones? Everyone agrees AA (UA too) is consistent at having inconsistent service from the flight attendants. So, why jump on accusations and racism?
Let me guess, start with the black and brown ones? Like your Dear Leader’s immigration policy?
It is unserious and unhelpful to make such a blanket statement with regards to AA’s improvement. But it is very helpful giving us an insight to the type of person you are.
“American is no longer best in class financially, operationally, or in customer service.” I suspect that at least one of these were true, at one point in time. However, how many people presently working at AA would remember this time? While I can certainly appreciate and identify with the pilots’ frustration, ain’t no way I am flying AA on anything but a redemption and not longer than a 6-hour one-way rental car drive from home for the foreseeable future.
the question is why have they been quiet so long??? I guess they published it now because finally there is a huge tide against the CEO now, otherwise it seems like the pilots were not brave to voice it out. Anyway, here is the board members, I wonder what they have been thinking so long:
https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-service/about-us/corporate-governance.jsp
Ken, thank you for including the link.
After reading the education qualifications of those responsible for corporate governance, their faults are so obvious to behold …. too many are handicapped by the MBA (Management Brainwashing Attendee) disqualification.
it doesn’t infer anything – it implies. come on
Absolutely Tim, Ben, is guilty of the misuse of the correct English word ‘Implies’ in his article.
If fired by the Board, the CEO receives $23.5 million. Directors are compensated. The amount of compensation is in the range of $250,000 annually. One would expect they could, for that level of compensation, make difficult decisions. Some Directors are CEOs themselves, however, so firing a fellow CEO might be a difficult call.
Firing the CEO is not always the only answer, and frequently doesn’t help. Corporate rot rarely stops at the CEO and direct reports, but goes significantly deeper into an organization, more than a CEO can replace. There is too much institutional knowledge to replace them all. Still, the board should take up the offer from the pilots. Hopefully it isn’t just a suggestion to buy more wide-bodies so narrow body pilots can get promoted.
The…
Firing the CEO is not always the only answer, and frequently doesn’t help. Corporate rot rarely stops at the CEO and direct reports, but goes significantly deeper into an organization, more than a CEO can replace. There is too much institutional knowledge to replace them all. Still, the board should take up the offer from the pilots. Hopefully it isn’t just a suggestion to buy more wide-bodies so narrow body pilots can get promoted.
The front line employees are more likely to know what’s wrong. Meeting with their unions to get tips on changes which would make operations better for customers could help, as long as the unions don’t just bring self-serving requests on their pay or working conditions.
But, none of these actions need a new CEO, just a board who supports the CEO in meeting with these teams and implementing corrective plans. Seeing new directions implemented based on employee input makes the employees feel valued, and start to care more about their jobs.
@JohnH
Should the CEO be placed on a PIP? Just like not firing junior staff is not always the answer, said CEOs lose no sleep nor have any reticence especially when Wall Streets demands toxic profits.
If the CEO is not performing, then he should be replaced like any other staff… even more so as the buck stops with him.
Time to Call Ben Smith over at Air France
Surely Richard, a move from AF to AA for Ben Smith, would be like asking step back three decades of aviation business practices.
Surely Richard, a move from AF to AA for Ben Smith, would be like asking step back three decades of aviation business practices.
The crews really deserve better.
Their former loyal customers deserve better. too. Im not sure exactly what caused us to dump AA, but after a decade of AA EXP, we haven’t intentionally credited a single flight to AA for 6 years, despite being a whisker from 3 MM. It is sad. It would be great to have the old AA back.
Come to think of it, maybe it was the steepening of qualification requirements for lower statuses that pushed…
Their former loyal customers deserve better. too. Im not sure exactly what caused us to dump AA, but after a decade of AA EXP, we haven’t intentionally credited a single flight to AA for 6 years, despite being a whisker from 3 MM. It is sad. It would be great to have the old AA back.
Come to think of it, maybe it was the steepening of qualification requirements for lower statuses that pushed us away permanently. While we should have been on the precipice of LT PP if their LT program didnt suck so bad, we were instead told that we would have to pay more for the privilege of regaining EXP. That insult plus the complete inability to confirm SWUs on international flights in advance is likely what ended our relationship. Of course, let’s not forge constant delays, crappy hubs, attitude from employees, absurd phone wait times, nasty food, ripping out seatback entertainment…There are so many things that AA sucks at, that it is hard to make a thorough list.
Some do. Some don’t. Flew MIA-GRU yesterday in F and had two rock stars flight attendants up front. I went to the 1R door restroom, and when I got out, the galley was blocked because one of the pilots was using the other restroom up front. The FA politely asked me if I’d mind circling back through the BC galley to return to my seat (2A). As soon as I set foot in the BC…
Some do. Some don’t. Flew MIA-GRU yesterday in F and had two rock stars flight attendants up front. I went to the 1R door restroom, and when I got out, the galley was blocked because one of the pilots was using the other restroom up front. The FA politely asked me if I’d mind circling back through the BC galley to return to my seat (2A). As soon as I set foot in the BC galley, another FA barked at me: “what are you doing ? This is a galley.” I told her that her colleague instructed me to go through there, to which she barked again: “I don’t care.” So yeah, some deserve better. Some deserve exactly what they got.
Gene, your observation is similar to my experiences. Good, Bad, and Ugly – often on the same flight. Two years ago, I flew BIS-DFW on Envoy/Eagle – E175. I was up in FC. The FC lavatory was inoperable, so all we had was the rear lavatory. On a 2 1/2-hour flight, it’s entirely possible that some passengers in first, and particularly with an attentive FA on drinks, would need to come back to use the…
Gene, your observation is similar to my experiences. Good, Bad, and Ugly – often on the same flight. Two years ago, I flew BIS-DFW on Envoy/Eagle – E175. I was up in FC. The FC lavatory was inoperable, so all we had was the rear lavatory. On a 2 1/2-hour flight, it’s entirely possible that some passengers in first, and particularly with an attentive FA on drinks, would need to come back to use the only working lavatory. As a result, a short, but well-behaved line (2 people) formed in the rear galley. What were we all to do, stay in our seats and walk back to check if the rear lavatory didn’t have a line? Well, the rear FA would have none of this. “They don’t pay me enough for this! Get OUT OF MY GALLEY!” It would be noted that she was not engaged in any service at that time, just goofing off in her jump seat. Yeah, that’s AA.
This story pretty much sums up flying American Airlines. Some flight attendants are great, but some are horrible and ruin the experience for everyone.
Those hard working, underpaid pilots deserve better
Exactly!
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Their former loyal customers deserve better. too. Im not sure exactly what caused us to dump AA, but after a decade of AA EXP, we haven't intentionally credited a single flight to AA for 6 years, despite being a whisker from 3 MM. It is sad. It would be great to have the old AA back. Come to think of it, maybe it was the steepening of qualification requirements for lower statuses that pushed us away permanently. While we should have been on the precipice of LT PP if their LT program didnt suck so bad, we were instead told that we would have to pay more for the privilege of regaining EXP. That insult plus the complete inability to confirm SWUs on international flights in advance is likely what ended our relationship. Of course, let's not forge constant delays, crappy hubs, attitude from employees, absurd phone wait times, nasty food, ripping out seatback entertainment…There are so many things that AA sucks at, that it is hard to make a thorough list.
it doesn't infer anything – it implies. come on
AA must clean house completely from the top down starting with Isom . Isom should have voluntarily resigned after three four years at the helm without progress, improvement and success. AA must hire a new CEO outside AA, who will bring in his new team and retire Isom's old clique. While at it, the new CEO shall gradually replace current Board members. But it may not work because the establishment is deeply entrenched in preserving and protecting more dominant group's interests and overlooks the company's overall interests. There are two ways to eject him but the second choice is rarely successful. The Board of Directors has sole power to remove the CEO. As for the second route, only Icahn could pull it off as an activist shareholder but he is a billionaire. Icahn owned 20% of a company's stocks and he leveraged his influence to compel the Board and CEO to adopt his reform demands. The company's name escapes my memory. The flying public and employees are just the pawns to sustain the system that enriches and strengthens the wealthy and powerful. Unsure how private foreign airlines earn profits without experiencing the deepening distrust and antagonistic relations between management, namely the C-suite, and rank and file.
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