Crandall says AA needs to clean Delta's clock
- Thread starter Overspeed
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WorldTraveler
Corn Field
- Dec 5, 2003
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let's be very clear, robbed, that Crandall said AA needs to clean DL's clock, not that it could or would.
He said it for very clear reasons.
Other people took his statement as meaning that DL is threatened and that AA would succeed at doing what Crandall says AA needs to do... but he didn't say that.
My posts in this thread have been to counter those people's thoughts and to show that Crandall made the statement he made because DL has demonstrated its ability to take key revenue from AA.
He said it for very clear reasons.
Other people took his statement as meaning that DL is threatened and that AA would succeed at doing what Crandall says AA needs to do... but he didn't say that.
My posts in this thread have been to counter those people's thoughts and to show that Crandall made the statement he made because DL has demonstrated its ability to take key revenue from AA.
Dilligas
Veteran
Bob Owens said:
Every senior level manager at the new AA should be required to read the paragraph above and outline how they will meet this challenge, as it is dead on accurate and portrays the difficult road ahead.
Most of us have made severe adjustments to lifestyle and made many sacrifices over the last 12 years to do our part to keep these two airlines alive. It is time to show some appreciation and gratitude to those that do their jobs day in and day out and whose wages are stuck in the 1990's to be made whole.
There is a very small window of opportunity for Doug and team to "walk the walk" as Crandall mentioned... if they resort to their pattern of stonewalling labor and executive greed, it's doomed.
Maybe they weren't there when it was taken but its still being used to pay them. So, as far as I'm concerned no difference between Parker and his buddy Horton, one and the same.
Like another poster said, they have the opportunity to show whether or not they are any different over there with the IAM. They said they could and would pay the wages of Delta and United when they were big like them, well they are, lets see it!
Like another poster said, they have the opportunity to show whether or not they are any different over there with the IAM. They said they could and would pay the wages of Delta and United when they were big like them, well they are, lets see it!
OP
- Jun 27, 2011
- 3,245
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- Thread Starter
- #52
eolesen said:
True, and Arpey was the one person who was willing to try and keep the pensions intact but the union leadership didn't want to deal with him. So we got Horton and BK. He get $17M and we get the bone. We got new management alright and the bone as well.
NewHampshire Black Bears said:
Way too much is being made of Bob's comments. The airline business has changed drastically since his tenure. AA can and will be a successful carrier if the AA way of treating the customer is retained and hopefully the new AA will not be just a larger version of US.MetalMover said:
Cleaning Delta's clock is child's talk, Delta will not stand still and watch another carrier waltz in and steal revenue.
It would be to Parker's benefit to be open to past AA management ideas and procedures and not think his US crew has all the answers. I was never in favor of this merger but now that it has come to pass, its my wish for the AA name and reputation to live on and most of the employees retained when the dust settles.
Beancounter
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- Jun 28, 2009
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WorldTraveler
Corn Field
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dash8roa said:
I agree with your post. The New AA has its work cut out for it if it expects to make any inroads into DL's customer base. I do disagree with one of your comments. The scariest part of this whole thing is not that Parker will depend on "his US crew" for answers, but that he will depend on "his AW crew" for those answers. He turned US into a big AW, and the fact is that US is just AW with a different name. He has zero experience running an airline geared toward attracting high yield passengers. ZERO. (And that should make me nervous, but my time here is quickly coming to a close so any mess he creates will not affect me for very long.)
If there is any chance that the New AA will "clean Delta's clock," it will take SURPASSING Delta's service in every aspect while simultaneously being successful at changing the perception of high-yield passengers so that they feel AA is a better deal. That is a HUGE hill to climb, and I am skeptical that it will be done. It CAN be done, but it would take a banner change in the way labor is treated. Until AA treats its employees as valued partners, and not liabilities (as Parker's history shows,) there is no way that the New AA will clean anybody's clock.
eolesen
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- Jul 23, 2003
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Nobody expects DL to just roll over and pee on its belly. But, when you're at the top of any particular measurement in the industry, there's only one way left to go, and DL's been pretty much unchallenged while the others were pre-occupied with their issues.
Crandall's comment is pretty clear -- AA needs to be focused on who the real competition is, and a little less focused on fighting each other.
Anyone who was around in the early 90's will recognize that as a common theme of his. His Presidents Conference messages were squarely focused on external competitors. Anyone remember his version of the "Motel 6" commercials, complete with the music and graphics? Better yet, anyone remember who he was targeting?...
Crandall's comment is pretty clear -- AA needs to be focused on who the real competition is, and a little less focused on fighting each other.
Anyone who was around in the early 90's will recognize that as a common theme of his. His Presidents Conference messages were squarely focused on external competitors. Anyone remember his version of the "Motel 6" commercials, complete with the music and graphics? Better yet, anyone remember who he was targeting?...
eolesen said:
Can a leopard change its spots? I don't think so. IMHO, the American West management team that is taking over the New AA does not have the psychological makeup to make the necessary changes TO THEMSELVES. The New AA will be the fourth largest airline within 5 years.
snapthis
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- Dec 23, 2009
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Parker is back where he started in '86.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Doug Parker lived in Phoenix for 18 years the longest hes been in one spot but it was a definite homecoming when he became CEO of American Airlines here Monday.
The 52-year-old executive joined American as an entry-level financial analyst just out of graduate school in 1986. He worked a floor below the sixth-floor corner suite he just moved into at Americans headquarters near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Parker bridged past and present by inviting the man who ran American then, retired airline-industry legend Bob Crandall, to join him in the festivities marking the closing of the US Airways-American Airlines merger and the debut of the new American.
The reality of his return to American as CEO started to sink in last Sunday night as he thought about sharing the stage with Crandall the next day.
Last night, thinking about that happening, made me at least reflect and think, Gosh, this is really neat, he said in his first interview in his new office. I sat down one floor below this and Bob sat up here, and now Bob was coming back to help support me in doing this. That was nice.
Parker will have no time for reflection now that the megadeal Tempe-based US Airways pursued for more than two years or nearly a decade if you count the mergers and failed deals that came before is complete.
The focus immediately turns to the process of combining two airlines, a minimum two-year project that has caused major headaches for travelers in previous mergers, most recently the United-Continental merger and during the America West-US Airways merger in 2005. Those airlines botched the critical changeover to a single reservations and ticketing system, creating lines out the door at many airports across the country in early 2007.
We know what the issues are up ahead, Parker said. Its just up to execution.
The easygoing executive admittedly gets defensive when asked whether he and the other top executives on Americans new management team, the same folks who ran US Airways and America West before that, are up to the day-to-day tasks of running the worlds largest airline after spending so much time chasing mergers the past several years.
With Parker as CEO, America West Airlines pursued bankrupt ATA Airlines in 2004, acquired US Airways in 2005, made a hostile takeover bid for Delta in 2006, tried to merge with United in 2008 and 2010 and started chasing American Airlines right after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011.
Yeah, but weve been running an airline the whole time, he said.
He continues. Heres what I think. We havent been chasing deals. Weve been working for airlines that Ive always felt would be improved by having stronger (route) networks. Both America West and US Airways were at a competitive disadvantage to other carrriers that had stronger networks, and the best way, I thought, to fix that problem was through consolidation. Weve got a team thats great at running airlines and now have the chance to do so without those disadvantages, and I think thats exciting.
Despite the self-inflicted challenges that arose as US Airways and America West were put together, Parker recalls the two years after that merger fondly.
That was exhilarating work trying to take two airlines and put them together and melding together management teams and building teams, he said. Im excited about the chance to do that on a bigger scale.
Hes already rallying front-line workers of the new American, telling them repeatedly last week that they are the key to pulling this off. The combined airline has 100,000 employees around the world, including more than 9,000 in Arizona.
This isnt something five or six people do, he said. This is 100,000 people. Our job is to make sure they have the tools they need to do their jobs. Thats the same role we needed to play at a 35,000-employee airline, and now you just do the same thing here. Its not easy work. But its completely scaleable.
With the transaction done and the airline industry down to four large, financially healthy airlines American/USAirways, United, Delta and Southwest Parker said hes happy to relinquish his position as the industry poster child for consolidation. It was the theme of countless Parker speeches over the years and questions about the airlines merger quest came up on every earnings conference call.
We were right about that, by the way, he said. The industry was too fragmented and it wasnt efficient as a result, and it wasnt good for our business or for our employees or for our customers.
Parker said hes also happy he no longer has to tell frontline employees of US Airways and America West that the company cant afford to pay as much as Delta and United because their revenues werent as strong.
I dont like giving that speech. It was just a required speech for the business model, he said. So its really nice to not be able to say that anymore.
The day the merger became effective, for example, US Airways 4,400 pilots received automatic pay raises per a union agreement negotiated during the merger talks, and their pay levels are now commensurate with American pilots.
A year from now, in addition to the merger metrics the airline has methodically established, Parker said he will judge whether the new American is on track by employees attitudes.
Id like to have people, the employees, feeling as happy about the merger as they do today, he said. Thats a big challenge.
It likely will take awhile for many American employees to get used to Parkers laid-back management style, approachability and banter given Americans reputation for a buttoned-down corporate culture.
Parker even joked about the airlines previously strict dress code in an employee meeting, telling attendees at a managers meeting Monday that they were all in trouble because they werent dressed well enough for Crandall.
The new management team also reassigned the security guard who used to be stationed outside the executive offices and Parker told employees to come up and say hi. He also did away with the reserved parking spots for executives.
I think the first one here gets the best spot, he said to applause at an employee meeting.
When an employee introduced himself and said, Nice to meet you, Mr. Parker during an informal merger celebration in the headquarters lobby, Parker shook his hand and responded, Hi. Its Doug.
As he did at US Airways, he sent American employees a letter detailing a key part of his pay package, a stock grant potentially worth more than $15 million.
We have a lot of challenges ahead, Parker said. I think one of the best ways to manage through challenges like that is just to make sure youre as open as you can possibly be with each other.
Employees in Arizona wont see Parker as much as they have in the past, of course. To gain broad support for a merger that American executives coolly rejected at first, US Airways executives agreed from the start that they had to keep Americans headquarters in Texas. US Airways has 750 employees at its headquarters and has not said how many of those jobs will be cut or transferred to Dallas.
Thats the one downside ... but it was a requirement to get this transaction done, he said.
Parkers family moved to Dallas ahead of the merger so his two youngest children, in eighth and 10th grades, could start school there. School friends in Scottsdale texted them the day the government filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger in August, asking if it meant the deal was off and they were coming back to Arizona.
I had to tell them, No, no, the deals going to get done and were going to stay here, Parker said.
For now, Parker still has a home in Paradise Valley and a place in the White Mountains and said he expects to be back often, starting with this weekend, because he and his wife have a lot of friends here. He plans to remain on the board of the Valley of the Sun United Way.
Its hard to say what I miss because I still feel like Im there and it still feels like home, he said.
He sees a lot of similarities between metropolitan Phoenix and the Texas metro area he last called home in 1991.
So many people here are transplants from somewhere else. Its not that hard to get involved and meet other people, he said. People have been very welcoming and friendly.
To the Phoenix community he is leaving full time, the metro area that last week lost one of its few Fortune 500 headquarters and worries about flight cuts that have occurred in other mergers, Parker reiterates the merger benefits he and other US Airways executives have pitched since the prospect of a US Airways-American deal publicly surfaced nearly two years ago.
Its hard for people to see what might have been otherwise, but the reality is, as long as we were US Airways, we were always vulnerable to downward shocks and things like that, he said.
So now having that (Phoenix) hub as part of a stronger airline, I think, does the same thing for Phoenix that it does for our employees. It just makes it that much more viable that you need not worry about it.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/articles/20131214american-ceo-parker-merger-us-airways.html
FORT WORTH, Texas - Doug Parker lived in Phoenix for 18 years the longest hes been in one spot but it was a definite homecoming when he became CEO of American Airlines here Monday.
The 52-year-old executive joined American as an entry-level financial analyst just out of graduate school in 1986. He worked a floor below the sixth-floor corner suite he just moved into at Americans headquarters near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Parker bridged past and present by inviting the man who ran American then, retired airline-industry legend Bob Crandall, to join him in the festivities marking the closing of the US Airways-American Airlines merger and the debut of the new American.
The reality of his return to American as CEO started to sink in last Sunday night as he thought about sharing the stage with Crandall the next day.
Last night, thinking about that happening, made me at least reflect and think, Gosh, this is really neat, he said in his first interview in his new office. I sat down one floor below this and Bob sat up here, and now Bob was coming back to help support me in doing this. That was nice.
Parker will have no time for reflection now that the megadeal Tempe-based US Airways pursued for more than two years or nearly a decade if you count the mergers and failed deals that came before is complete.
The focus immediately turns to the process of combining two airlines, a minimum two-year project that has caused major headaches for travelers in previous mergers, most recently the United-Continental merger and during the America West-US Airways merger in 2005. Those airlines botched the critical changeover to a single reservations and ticketing system, creating lines out the door at many airports across the country in early 2007.
We know what the issues are up ahead, Parker said. Its just up to execution.
The easygoing executive admittedly gets defensive when asked whether he and the other top executives on Americans new management team, the same folks who ran US Airways and America West before that, are up to the day-to-day tasks of running the worlds largest airline after spending so much time chasing mergers the past several years.
With Parker as CEO, America West Airlines pursued bankrupt ATA Airlines in 2004, acquired US Airways in 2005, made a hostile takeover bid for Delta in 2006, tried to merge with United in 2008 and 2010 and started chasing American Airlines right after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011.
Yeah, but weve been running an airline the whole time, he said.
He continues. Heres what I think. We havent been chasing deals. Weve been working for airlines that Ive always felt would be improved by having stronger (route) networks. Both America West and US Airways were at a competitive disadvantage to other carrriers that had stronger networks, and the best way, I thought, to fix that problem was through consolidation. Weve got a team thats great at running airlines and now have the chance to do so without those disadvantages, and I think thats exciting.
Despite the self-inflicted challenges that arose as US Airways and America West were put together, Parker recalls the two years after that merger fondly.
That was exhilarating work trying to take two airlines and put them together and melding together management teams and building teams, he said. Im excited about the chance to do that on a bigger scale.
Hes already rallying front-line workers of the new American, telling them repeatedly last week that they are the key to pulling this off. The combined airline has 100,000 employees around the world, including more than 9,000 in Arizona.
This isnt something five or six people do, he said. This is 100,000 people. Our job is to make sure they have the tools they need to do their jobs. Thats the same role we needed to play at a 35,000-employee airline, and now you just do the same thing here. Its not easy work. But its completely scaleable.
With the transaction done and the airline industry down to four large, financially healthy airlines American/USAirways, United, Delta and Southwest Parker said hes happy to relinquish his position as the industry poster child for consolidation. It was the theme of countless Parker speeches over the years and questions about the airlines merger quest came up on every earnings conference call.
We were right about that, by the way, he said. The industry was too fragmented and it wasnt efficient as a result, and it wasnt good for our business or for our employees or for our customers.
Parker said hes also happy he no longer has to tell frontline employees of US Airways and America West that the company cant afford to pay as much as Delta and United because their revenues werent as strong.
I dont like giving that speech. It was just a required speech for the business model, he said. So its really nice to not be able to say that anymore.
The day the merger became effective, for example, US Airways 4,400 pilots received automatic pay raises per a union agreement negotiated during the merger talks, and their pay levels are now commensurate with American pilots.
A year from now, in addition to the merger metrics the airline has methodically established, Parker said he will judge whether the new American is on track by employees attitudes.
Id like to have people, the employees, feeling as happy about the merger as they do today, he said. Thats a big challenge.
It likely will take awhile for many American employees to get used to Parkers laid-back management style, approachability and banter given Americans reputation for a buttoned-down corporate culture.
Parker even joked about the airlines previously strict dress code in an employee meeting, telling attendees at a managers meeting Monday that they were all in trouble because they werent dressed well enough for Crandall.
The new management team also reassigned the security guard who used to be stationed outside the executive offices and Parker told employees to come up and say hi. He also did away with the reserved parking spots for executives.
I think the first one here gets the best spot, he said to applause at an employee meeting.
When an employee introduced himself and said, Nice to meet you, Mr. Parker during an informal merger celebration in the headquarters lobby, Parker shook his hand and responded, Hi. Its Doug.
As he did at US Airways, he sent American employees a letter detailing a key part of his pay package, a stock grant potentially worth more than $15 million.
We have a lot of challenges ahead, Parker said. I think one of the best ways to manage through challenges like that is just to make sure youre as open as you can possibly be with each other.
Employees in Arizona wont see Parker as much as they have in the past, of course. To gain broad support for a merger that American executives coolly rejected at first, US Airways executives agreed from the start that they had to keep Americans headquarters in Texas. US Airways has 750 employees at its headquarters and has not said how many of those jobs will be cut or transferred to Dallas.
Thats the one downside ... but it was a requirement to get this transaction done, he said.
Parkers family moved to Dallas ahead of the merger so his two youngest children, in eighth and 10th grades, could start school there. School friends in Scottsdale texted them the day the government filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger in August, asking if it meant the deal was off and they were coming back to Arizona.
I had to tell them, No, no, the deals going to get done and were going to stay here, Parker said.
For now, Parker still has a home in Paradise Valley and a place in the White Mountains and said he expects to be back often, starting with this weekend, because he and his wife have a lot of friends here. He plans to remain on the board of the Valley of the Sun United Way.
Its hard to say what I miss because I still feel like Im there and it still feels like home, he said.
He sees a lot of similarities between metropolitan Phoenix and the Texas metro area he last called home in 1991.
So many people here are transplants from somewhere else. Its not that hard to get involved and meet other people, he said. People have been very welcoming and friendly.
To the Phoenix community he is leaving full time, the metro area that last week lost one of its few Fortune 500 headquarters and worries about flight cuts that have occurred in other mergers, Parker reiterates the merger benefits he and other US Airways executives have pitched since the prospect of a US Airways-American deal publicly surfaced nearly two years ago.
Its hard for people to see what might have been otherwise, but the reality is, as long as we were US Airways, we were always vulnerable to downward shocks and things like that, he said.
So now having that (Phoenix) hub as part of a stronger airline, I think, does the same thing for Phoenix that it does for our employees. It just makes it that much more viable that you need not worry about it.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/articles/20131214american-ceo-parker-merger-us-airways.html
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