American Airlines Wants To Be "The Premier Global Airline Based In The US"

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.

Good for them - I wanna be the best whale on the beach!

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.

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.

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.

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? 🙂

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.

Top third of the bottom quarter. Set low goals and consistently fail to meet them

Skeptical like everyone else. But I guess you have to start somewhere.

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"...

Might be easier to move their corporate registration to Belize and declare “We are the premier global airline based in Belize.” Mission accomplished.

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

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.

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.

I was never good at maths but even I know two out of three is two thirds and not half re airline, American, premier.

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.