American Airlines’ most competent leader seems to have a new vision for the airline as of recently, which he’s repeating constantly. While I’m happy to see that American finally has a goal, I can’t help but think this borders on being so unrealistic as to be silly. Then again, what else is he supposed to say?!
Nat Pieper has an insanely lofty vision for American
American is horribly lagging Delta and United when it comes to financials, and the situation has gotten really bad in recent years. Essentially what happened is that starting in 2017 or so, American’s management became laser focused on controlling costs, instead of focusing on the passenger experience.
Delta has of course for years been pursuing a “premium” strategy, and it’s something that United started aggressively working toward around the same time. For years, American thought it had a winning strategy, and post-COVID, the airline took that to the next level, by also increasingly focusing on domestic flying rather than international flying.
However, this strategy simply hasn’t worked. So in 2025, American management admitted its mistakes, and shared plans to make the airline more premium again. Initially there wasn’t much substance to this, though efforts are really starting to step up — American will install Starlink fleetwide, and also plans to introduce seat back TVs across its narrow body fleet (after just finishing a project to rip them out).
I have zero faith in American CEO Robert Isom, and I think it’s time for him to go. But as of now I do have faith in American’s new Chief Commercial Officer, Nat Pieper. He’s an outsider who comes from Delta, Alaska, oneworld, etc., and he clearly gets the gravity of the situation.
Now, huge respect to him, but I wouldn’t want to be in his position, trying to fix American, since it sort of seems like an impossible situation to be in:
- American already has the most debt of any US carrier, and that’s before actually investing in improving the passenger experience
- It takes years for airlines to see results from product investments, given the pace at which they happen, and the slow rate at which consumer sentiment changes
- American’s goal is to increasingly compete in competitive markets, and that’s going to be money losing; airlines make money in their fortress hubs, not in markets where they’re taking on a better positioned competitor that doesn’t want to give up any market share
But Pieper does have a vision he’s now consistently espousing — he wants American to be “the premier global airline based in the US.” I first saw reference to him mentioning this several weeks back, and I wasn’t initially sure if it was a one-off statement, or if this is the big new talking point. Clearly it’s the latter.
Pieper has acknowledged that the goal is a distant one, and has also repeatedly described it as the airline’s “directional north star.” He has also often mentioned this in the context of the immediate work also being focused on improving American’s position in markets like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
My take on American’s new goal of being number one
I’m not going to be sarcastic and rib Pieper here, because I respect him, and I understand what he’s trying to go for here. But goodness, do I have a lot of thoughts on this. First, let’s actually analyze the statement, of wanting American to be “the premier global airline based in the US.”
Okay, so American is already an airline, so they got that goal checked off. American is also based in the US, so they are already excelling there. We’re halfway to completing our goal!
Wait, but American wants to be “the premier” airline in the US? In other words, American doesn’t just want to catch up with Delta and United, but wants to overtake them? And not only that, but it wants to be the premier “global” airline, as in, it wants to compete globally with United?
I’m of two minds here. On the one hand, what is Pieper supposed to say? “Our goal is to not suck,” or “our goal is to make people forget the past decade happened?” That’s not exactly inspiring to employees. But also, this goal is so unrealistic as to just be silly. You might as well just make the goal for American to have a higher market cap than SpaceX!
Why not go for something more realistic? Why can’t it be something like “our goal is to be an airline our customers want to fly and that our employees are proud of?”
And that actually brings me to another point. The hyperbole among executives at the “big three” US carriers has gotten out of hand. For a while, it was all about “we want to be premium,” whatever that means, exactly. But as of late, you’ll hear executives at the US carriers all claim they want to be the number one airline in the US.
I’d pose the simple question of why they feel the need to benchmark themselves in that way? Why do they need to be “better” than competitors by some vague, subjective metric? Why can’t they just want to offer a great experience?
The simple reality is that there’s never going to be one “best” airline. United isn’t trying to be the world’s best airline if you’re based in Atlanta or Minneapolis, Delta isn’t trying to be the world’s best airline if you’re based on Denver or Houston, and American isn’t trying to be the world’s best airline if you’re based in… not El Paso or Tucson (okay, I’m kidding). The United States is a big country with a lot of travel demand, and all kinds of markets, and it’s fine for different airlines to be “best” in different areas.
Among airline CEOs, United’s Scott Kirby is probably the most insistent on creating the best airline in the US, but in an Air Koryo kind of way, through consolidation of two of the “big three” carriers. And let’s be clear, that kind of a “premier” airline would not be good for the general public. Then again, Kirby already claims that United is already “the best airline in the history of aviation.”
Bottom line
American Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper is a bright guy, and he’s our best bet at a turnaround for the airline. I don’t envy his position, because a turnaround requires investing many billions over many years, and is unlikely to produce meaningful results for an extended period of time.
His new goal is for American to be “the premier global airline based in the US.” I appreciate the concept of wanting to positively inspire employees, but this just strikes me as a goal that’s both completely unrealistic, and also silly.
The US shouldn’t have one “premier” global airline, since we’re a large country with a lot of different airline hubs. And unfortunately if there were to be a “premier” global airline based in the US, I think odds of it being American are very close to zero, at least in the next decade or two.
But I also get it. Airline executives say silly things to motivate employees, and you’ve gotta do something to inspire people.
What do you make of the new goal of American becoming “the premier global airline based in the US?”
I know folks are focused on how long it takes to implement the long lead capital investments…and I am incredibly eager for a better international route network, newer wide body planes, faster internet, etc. (don’t really care that much about seat back tvs or the wine list personally)…but I have to say that I am impressed by how much of an impact some of the smaller changes have made to my customer experience in a...
I know folks are focused on how long it takes to implement the long lead capital investments…and I am incredibly eager for a better international route network, newer wide body planes, faster internet, etc. (don’t really care that much about seat back tvs or the wine list personally)…but I have to say that I am impressed by how much of an impact some of the smaller changes have made to my customer experience in a very short amount of time. A recent delay was appropriately handled in the app with no rolling delays. As an EP, I have been proactively thanked by name on every one of my recent trips, even when sitting in MCE, and have been proactively offered my snack/sandwich benefit at the start of service when in economy on a longer mainline flight. And as lame as it sounds to say this, it honestly seems that the service has been offered with more smiles than in the past. I get it…it is a pretty low bar and doesn’t get them anywhere near overtaking Delta and United yet…but this is what you get when you lay out a better vision for your employees and make changes that reinforce that message, even if it is low hanging fruit. I’m generally a believer that people want to do a good job and buy in to the success of their employer, if you give them a reason. I’m excited to see where this goes and actually feel some hope for the first time in a long time with the direction of the airline.
I was never good at maths but even I know two out of three is two thirds and not half re airline, American, premier.
Love it - after years of Isom staying in the shadows, it's about time some bravAAdo. Nuke any/all elements of the US Airways culture and get moving forward. Really want AA to succeed.
great take, Ben.
The airline industry EVERYWHERE has always been an ego game. Part of the reason why airlines are such poor financial investments in general (if they are not state owned) is because there is always a "need" by its leaders to expand beyond what it can afford.
The US needs competition and yet the big 4 are stronger than they have ever been and competition to the big 4 is weaker than it...
great take, Ben.
The airline industry EVERYWHERE has always been an ego game. Part of the reason why airlines are such poor financial investments in general (if they are not state owned) is because there is always a "need" by its leaders to expand beyond what it can afford.
The US needs competition and yet the big 4 are stronger than they have ever been and competition to the big 4 is weaker than it has ever been even as LUV is fully embracing become a big 3 clone.
right now, none of it matters in light of jet fuel prices that keeps going up and is unlikely to stop going up. The Middle East remains a flaming mess while Russia used a couple days of throttled back Starshield (the military version of Starlink) in Ukraine to destroy as much in such a short period as they have in any week than they have so far in the war; Ukraine's answer is that it will move full speed forward with targeting Russian energy infrastructure including refineries making the Starshield screwup even more costly for the west.
Airlines around the world are cutting capacity for the normally slow winter in light of high fuel prices. AA had one of the most aggressive growth plans for the 4th quarter and beyond to try to cut AA's high unit costs but they will have no choice but to cut capacity in light of high fuel prices.
UA's total debt is only a couple billion less than AA's and UA still has massive aircraft deliveries coming for which it cannot generate cash to pay so it is taking on debt.
Just as at covid, the US big 4 is divided between DL and WN which are very conservatively managed financially and AA and UA which are financially fragile; AA just happens to be more fragile.
all of the strategies and exec hiring and firings that AA is doing are not much different than B6 over the past couple years; both carriers are fundamentally weakened in an industry that shows no sign of returning to financial strength just as every airline starts chasing the same "premium" traffic.
Realistic goals for American:
1. Abandon US Airways management style. Stop thinking of the airline primarily as a no frills deliverer of people from Charlotte to Tampa. Bring back PTVs, convince customers you're not the sad also-ran to Delta and United. In corporate speak this is probably "Transform ourselves into a leading premium carrier
2. Expand wide-body fleet and introduce more service to Europe. UA/DL are eating their lunch with TATL service. Running people...
Realistic goals for American:
1. Abandon US Airways management style. Stop thinking of the airline primarily as a no frills deliverer of people from Charlotte to Tampa. Bring back PTVs, convince customers you're not the sad also-ran to Delta and United. In corporate speak this is probably "Transform ourselves into a leading premium carrier
2. Expand wide-body fleet and introduce more service to Europe. UA/DL are eating their lunch with TATL service. Running people through LHR on BA, with terminal changes a majority of the time, is non-competitive against EWR-CTA, JFK-OLB, etc.
3. Maintain market dominance in Latin America.
4. Honestly they're probably too far behind in Asia to do much other than offer some loss-leading routes to HKG or Tokyo so maybe just cut losses there, especially with a shortage of widebodies.
5. Generate more profit from credit card/lounge networks. There's room to grow there
Might be easier to move their corporate registration to Belize and declare “We are the premier global airline based in Belize.” Mission accomplished.
1. What's with the Americans recently being obsessed about the term "global airline" (as if it meant something)?
2. It's not possible to operate premium airline in the US, certainly not on the above-mentioned "global" scale. They can't even teach their crews that call button isn't "only for emergencies"...
Skeptical like everyone else. But I guess you have to start somewhere.
Top third of the bottom quarter. Set low goals and consistently fail to meet them
Why can’t it be something like “our goal is to be an airline our customers want to fly and that our employees are proud of?”
You'd never make it as a management consultant as this goal is more vague than the one you criticize.
What’s the difference between ‘premier’ and ‘premium’… at this point, I’d settle for operating reliably, complimentary on-board WiFi, and, umm, a smile? :-)
I would cut them some slack. What are they supposed to say?
AA does have some strengths. Of the big three they have the best domestic network. If you need to go from Rochester to Duluth AA will probably have the best options of the big three. Their central and South American networks are really strong.
If they expand on other global markets and figure out you can’t keep treating customers like garbage...
I would cut them some slack. What are they supposed to say?
AA does have some strengths. Of the big three they have the best domestic network. If you need to go from Rochester to Duluth AA will probably have the best options of the big three. Their central and South American networks are really strong.
If they expand on other global markets and figure out you can’t keep treating customers like garbage they may make something of themselves someday.
Now they just need a better slogan.
Not going to happen.
There's no such thing as a "premier" global airline based in the US. They're all essentially the same when it comes to service.
As to the most global of US carriers, that crown probably belongs to United.
Undifferentiated markets (commodity products) compete on price, not quality. As they have no pricing power over consumers, they increase earnings via cost cutting. Differentiated markets (value-add products) compete on quality, not price. They do have pricing power over consumers. The take-away from the failure of the ULCC model and the ULCC move to the legacy model is that quality matters.
The first step is to take what you already have in place and build in...
Undifferentiated markets (commodity products) compete on price, not quality. As they have no pricing power over consumers, they increase earnings via cost cutting. Differentiated markets (value-add products) compete on quality, not price. They do have pricing power over consumers. The take-away from the failure of the ULCC model and the ULCC move to the legacy model is that quality matters.
The first step is to take what you already have in place and build in the target level of quality. One promise that Isom made on Day One was: every aircraft ready to fly and the beginning of every day. You need network routes and network schedules that customers can count on. Then, you need to execute on that. This is the starting point and it hasn't been happening. After that, you can start talking about expansion.
From there, customer service and in-flight experience. But, there's huge inertia to overcome. For 15 years, British Airways focused on cost cutting over quality. When it had the chance, it offered buy-out packages to high-wage long-tenured cabin crews (those with the service corporate memory). What was left were flight crews without that service corporate memory. So, while BA's CEO stated years ago that he wanted to bring back BA's reputation as a premier carrier, nothing has really changed. And, I honestly don't think BA will ever get that back.
AA needs a thorough house cleaning. The America West cost-cutting poison has been in AA's veins for years and has brought it to where it is today.
Good for them - I wanna be the best whale on the beach!
What do I make of it?
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.
US airlines will never even reach 3rd tier. They treat customers like cattle. The government's complete lack of regulation also means this will never change.
I’m all for better consumer (and worker) protections, but… most US carriers in solid ‘2nd tier’ status, globally. At best, they’ll rank 4 out of 5 on Skytrax… (gotta pay them more for a better ranking.) No US carrier is gonna be NH, CX, BR, JL, KE, QR, SQ, or JX; yet, AA is not Aeroflot or Lion Air, either (true 3rd tier).
Hey, wait a minute. I flew Lion Air (well Thai Lion Air) last year and I actually liked their airport/onboard service. Granted it was a short flight to Phuket but it was perfectly fine.