{"id":717614,"date":"2026-06-21T15:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T15:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717614\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T15:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T15:59:13","slug":"sos-could-doug-parker-really-return-to-save-american-airlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717614\/","title":{"rendered":"SOS: Could Doug Parker Really Return To “Save” American Airlines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a rumor swirling around that American Airlines may bring back former CEO Doug Parker to replace current CEO Robert Isom. When I first heard this, I thought \u201cwait, there\u2019s no way the board would do something like this, right?\u201d However, the more I think about it, the more I think \u201cwait, that\u2019s exactly what American\u2019s board would do, of course.\u201d Let me explain\u2026<\/p>\n

Airline executives speculate Doug Parker may replace Robert Isom<\/p>\n

In recent years, American has been falling further and further behind<\/a> both Delta and United when it comes to financial performance. In reality, Delta is still strongest, while United has been pulling ahead at American\u2019s expense, as it seems to be a zero sum game between the two airlines.<\/p>\n

Simply put, the company has lacked a cohesive vision for so long. Premium\u2026 not premium\u2026 now premium again\u2026 who is to say?! It has now gotten to the point where management realizes they need to invest in customer experience, but one wonders if it\u2019s too little too late, especially with the pace at which Delta and United are also investing in their products. It\u2019s not easy to make up ground in these circumstances.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not alone in wondering who will fix American, and when they\u2019ll replace CEO Robert Isom<\/a>. If American had a competent board, we would\u2019ve seen a management change a long time ago. While I\u2019m sure the board doesn\u2019t want to admit that it has been asleep at the wheel, sooner or later, something\u2019s gotta give. <\/p>\n

The issue is that several board members are doubling down and don\u2019t want to admit defeat, since they\u2019re the same people who were behind the decision to choose Isom over Scott Kirby to lead American next (Kirby was president of American, and was then told he\u2019d never be CEO, which is why he left to go to United, and there\u2019s a lot of bad blood there).<\/p>\n

So that brings us to the latest rumor that\u2019s swirling around. Brian Sumers, who writes the Airline Observer<\/a> (a paid subscription for full access) recently attended the IATA AGM in Rio de Janeiro, which is the one event each year attended by virtually every airline industry executive. While a lot of important stuff happens in official meetings, what\u2019s equally interesting is what\u2019s discussed off the record, and at the bars late at night. Airline executives love to gossip (who doesn\u2019t?!).<\/p>\n

Sumers explains that one of the most common topics of conversation among executives was whether Isom will make it through the end of 2026, and who will eventually replace him. I\u2019ve shared my take in the past<\/a> on who I think would be a good fit to replace Isom, but it seems industry executives have a different theory. The leading candidate to replace Isom, according to other executives? Well, it could be former American CEO Doug Parker (who was previously CEO of US Airways, and CEO of America West before that \u2014 he\u2019s one of the industry\u2019s longest serving airline CEOs).<\/p>\n

The idea is that Parker has the industry experience and respect needed to turn the airline around\u2026 or something. Keep in mind Parker is still somewhat in the industry, as he\u2019s on the board of Qantas. And he\u2019s \u201conly\u201d 64, five years younger than Delta CEO Ed Bastian.<\/p>\n

\"\"Could Doug Parker really make a return to American?!<\/p>\n

Parker would do nothing to fix American\u2019s underlying problems<\/p>\n

As a person, I respect Parker quite a bit. He seems like a kind, fair guy, he\u2019s surprisingly pro union, and he has certainly done a lot for the airline industry over the years, being a leading voice during tough times (including going to Washington asking for bailouts).<\/p>\n

However, if you ask me, Parker and Isom are almost identical in that regard \u2014 they\u2019re both nice guys, but they lack a vision. Even as American started its slow descent under Parker, he had the same \u201coh, everything is fine\u201d narrative that Isom now has<\/a>. I actually suspect this might\u2019ve been one of the reasons that Kirby was passed over in favor of Isom \u2014 Kirby is absolutely cutthroat, highly competitive, and wants to win, while neither Parker nor Isom have that mentality.<\/p>\n

Replacing Isom with Parker would do absolutely nothing to fix American. The single biggest thing that American needs is a CEO who can excite employees, and who can get them to rally behind a vision. Period. End of story. Without that, there is no turnaround, because employees are just confused and indifferent, given the lack of direction they\u2019ve been given.<\/p>\n

Personally, I also think it needs to be an outsider, so that the board shows employees that they\u2019re serious about change. Simply rearranging the America West deck chairs doesn\u2019t send a message of actual change to employees. I\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again \u2014 someone like Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith would be the person to turn the airline around.<\/p>\n

Now, do I think the odds of that happening are actually good? No, probably not. That would be way too out-of-the-box for American\u2019s board. And American is an airline that probably more than any other promotes from within. That\u2019s great in theory, but it\u2019s also why there\u2019s such groupthink, and how we\u2019ve gotten to this point.<\/p>\n

American actually has some decent executives now \u2014 recently appointed Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper is a bright guy, and I think he has the right idea with strategy, and he\u2019s also sort of an outsider. That being said, my impression is that he might be more of a Glen Hauenstein type than a Bastian type (Hauenstein was Delta\u2019s former president, and he was really the guy behind most of the strategy, even though you almost never heard from him).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden has been the person behind many of the positive changes in recent times, but again, she\u2019s from the America West \u201cclub,\u201d and I\u2019m not sure a 20+ year veteran of the company is really the person employees are going to rally around, because they\u2019ve been let down too often. For that matter, I don\u2019t know enough about her to wager a guess as to whether she can actually be innovative \u2014 virtually all the positive changes we\u2019ve seen from American in recent times have just been obvious areas where the company is catching up with the competition. <\/p>\n

One thing is for sure \u2014 the board can only ignore reality for so much longer. Or I dunno, maybe they can, because little about our corporate world makes sense.<\/p>\n

\"\"American needs a serious culture change<\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/p>\n

American CEO Robert Isom just hasn\u2019t been doing a great job leading the airline in the right direction, at least when you look at the company\u2019s financial performance compared to that of competitors. While the idea seems sort of wild to me, many other industry executives reportedly think that the most likely successor to Isom is a return of Parker.<\/p>\n

Replacing a nice guy who lacks strategy with a nice guy who lacks strategy just doesn\u2019t strike me as a wise decision. Then again, American\u2019s board is the whole reason we\u2019re in this situation to begin with, given that they opted for Isom over former president Kirby to take over at American.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to think that there\u2019s no way this could happen, but who really knows\u2026<\/p>\n

What do you make of the rumor of Parker returning to American?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a rumor swirling around that American Airlines may bring back former CEO Doug Parker to replace current…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-717614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}