How American’s CEO plans to beat Delta Airlines
How American’s CEO plans to beat Delta Airlines
The Street wrote a good article detailing what American Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Doug Parker, said during last week’s JPMorgan transportation conference. Parker told attendees that despite the fact that American has a revenue gap when compared to Delta, that American is on its way to closing the gap. Parker assured attendees that the “revenue gap” would be closed because of American’s “aggressive fleet modernization.” To Parker’s point, American did have the second oldest fleet in the industry and due to American’s investment in fleet modernization, they now have the youngest fleet in the industry.
For example, the average fleet age at Southwest is 10.4 years, United is at 14.4 years, and Delta is at and 16.6 years. Where does American stand? American’s average fleet size will be at 9.8 years by the end of 2017.
At the end of the day, this is all talk. American is still suffering in many other areas. American saw a passenger traffic drop of 3.3% for the month of February 2017. Even worst, American’s performance rating still lags behind Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska, and so on. In fact, American only beat out Spirit and Frontier on performance, meaning, they came in last of all major U.S. airlines and couldn’t even keep up with some smaller airlines (ExpressJet, Hawaiian, JetBlue).
Source: The Street
Since moving to PHX from MSP I have had to transition to AA as my primary carrier. Having lived through the NWA and Delta merger and now experiencing it again with AA and USAir, it was been very similar. American will need to do more then buy new planes. Delta spent money standardizing their hard product and training their employees to truly treat passengers with respect. American has the opportunity for me and my fellow passengers to feel important on their planes, at the gate or the club. So far American phone agents are equal to those at Delta. Gate, counter and onboard service needs to be trained. Thank me by name when I board, help me with my bag, don’t just point, offer the whole can of soda or an extra cookie if I ask or better yet, even if I don’t and don’t talk over my head about dinner plans when I leave the plan, thank me again. American could easily move past Delta if they start treating the passenger better and with respect. Planes are nice, but a Thank you goes a long way, right now American has my business due to price and the PHX hub, but I would go back to Delta if the fare was the same even without my Gold status. Respect your employee, train them to respect me and you can get buy with older planes.