American Airlines CEO Doug Parker stepping down end of March

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker stepping down end of March

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker will retire on March 31 and get replaced by the service’s present president, Robert Isom.

Parker has led Texas-based American since late 2013, when he engineered a merger with smaller US Airways. He’ll stay as chairman, American mentioned Tuesday.

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Isom had been Parker’s inheritor obvious since changing into president of American in 2016 after Scott Kirby was compelled out and left to hitch United Airlines, the place he now serves because the CEO. Isom has overseen American’s operations, together with gross sales and pricing, and its alliances with different airways.

Isom was beforehand American’s chief working officer and held the identical job beneath Parker at US Airways, the place he was accountable for bettering the airline’s on-time efficiency.

The nation’s high airways have been the topic of many refund complaints in the course of the pandemic, with the U.S. Division of Transportation receiving practically 90,000 complaints about ticket refunds final yr, up greater than 5,000% from lower than 1,600 in 2019. 

Airlines nonetheless owe clients upwards of $20 billion in refunds for flights that have been canceled final yr, specialists say. And refunds stay a serious supply of rivalry after erupting early on within the pandemic as airways reduce flights, governments enacted journey restrictions and would-be vacationers canceled journeys. The trade suffered large and sudden losses in income and earnings and finally received a $25 billion federal bailout to assist assist its idled workforces. 

Parker mentioned American is “well-positioned to take full advantage of our industry’s recovery” from the collapse in journey brought on by the pandemic, “and now is the right time for a handoff we have planned and prepared for.”

The 60-year-old Parker is the most recent CEO of a serious U.S. airline to announce his retirement this yr. In June, Southwest Airlines Gary Kelly mentioned he would step down, with longtime government Robert Jordan taking up. Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden was succeeded by Ben Minicucci in April.

Parker has spent twenty years as an airline CEO since changing into the pinnacle of America West Airlines simply days earlier than the September 11, 2001, terror assaults. The Phoenix service survived a downturn in journey with assist from a federal mortgage.

In 2005, Parker engineered a merger with bigger US Airways, and he repeated the identical technique in December 2013 with American, which was simply rising from chapter safety. Parker enlisted the assist of American’s labor unions to dump the larger airline’s administration after the merger.

American is led by a tight-knit group of executives — together with Isom, 56 — most of whom have been collectively since America West.

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