I'm hearing a lot of absolutism here but I'm not so sure that it really gets to the heart of the issue as much as it wanders around the talking points. Still, the points taken here are certainly informative as well as instructive of what the challenge is for US or any airline for that matter.
Airlines are indeed a strange bird. Look at the breadth of the aviation industry in its entirety. Sure, we all know the actual airline side of the industry as it's the most prominient part. But ponder this. For the most part, it's the airlines themselves which struggle to create growth and share value for investors, or to deliver a consistent and delineated product to customers. The guys who design and build the plane, the companies who build the seats or make the luggage lorries, the entities who lease planes or cater cabins, most any company doing something aviation-related consistently makes money in this businees & returns value to investors and a product to customers-- except the airlines.
So what's going here here at US is a much larger force than messers K & P freelancing by themselves.
Airlines struggle to make money because they sell seats at a loss. When a competitor undercuts them, airlines cut prices still more and take even bigger losses. Nothing new about any of this, nor is this practice atypical of any other industry facing competetition. But in most every other industry, these (temporary) losses are tolerated so long as one builds market share which creates efficiencies and the ability to raise prices to better fit costs. This is not the way airlines have been run the past few decades since government-induced deregulation ( which does indeed bring more pax to the ticket counters ).
9/11 and rising fuel costs create a douoble whammy effect which compels airline and their execs to wake up & smell the coffee of modernity while acknowledging the precarious position of commercial airlines. At present, American commercial aviation has yet to fully acknowledge this reality. It remains slow/reluctant to merge/consolidate/disgorge itself of ineffencies. And when done in the half-assed manner by which most airlines have approached it, the results a bad for pax, uncertain for investors, and a disaster for employees.
Now the world is not gonna sit still while the ivory tower folks tinker and struggle to find the right formula. Folks here are correct to opine that the Wharton School might be of use here -- except that I don't think believe that even Wharton has the answers. The airline paradigm is a Gordian knot of plain and simple laggard/ineffectual industry managment combined with complicated government regulation up the whazoo ( some of this necessarry, other portions questionalble ) and some unique problems within the industry such as a huge vulnerability to weather, a technologically laggard ATC ( thanks Congress ) and a converging gloabalization process which hasn't fully worked out how international carriers flying between borders can integrate ownership ( & enhance or maximize operational/finances/marketing effencies). IMO, this uniqueness makes it a dangerous proposition when a "hot shot" shows up thinking that they have all of the answers to this slippery slope industry.
Now the OP hits the nail on the head when they suggest that an airline today can not be managed by managers with a unitary skill/dimension. It is indeed instructive to learn that neither Kirby or Parker have an operational background. A prudent airline would create a management structure which combines these two skills. But in today's aviation reality, it remains critical to make financials and operations your two tantamount focus points. A failure to do so will have you walking the plank to oblivion.
As Art suggests, US has its priorities wrong. But not so nearly as wrong as most think. If one considers the recent history of US, it makes perfect sense to have financials folks at the table when merging two disparate airlines into one -- especially given today's precarious aviation environment and complicated unioin situations. But an operations guru was also essential if Tempe really understood the challenges/issues facing it as east meets west. And Tempe has abjectly failed to create stable, reliable operations.
In this sense, I somewhat disagree with Art who suggests that the customer is always priority number one. Of course, the customer should always be the focus of every employee's effort as a satisfied customer comes back and tells others to follow. But without adequate operations, there exists no inducement to bring folks into the cabin in the first place -- and note, flying is indeed partly a "cattle" type experience.
Phasers mentions marketing, and rightly so. But once again, you can't make strawberries out of hosreshit. A good product sells itself, and good marketing simply maximizes returns. Just what does US really have to sell at the moment? Thank Parker and Kriby for that situation, but marketing flows from operations and financials, not the other way around. That said, the one area which was always in Tempe's grasp was the Dividend Miles program and especially their elites. In this regard, Tempe has driven away a good chunk of their legacy elites with lies, obfuscations, and an inconsistent product. Looks like there were all sorts of failures at the top.
My own take on this thread?
I don't mind, and I actually fully expect almost any company to make mistakes, miscues, and mis-steps. US doesn't disappoint in that regard. The real bottom line is how a company synthesizes and what they learn from their mistakes. This is where US has failed miserably under Parker. In terms of strategy, US errs big time by not having an operational guru at the top sitting astride a financials hot shot. But even this I can forgive so long as Tempe really "gets it".
But the thing that gets my nipples hard and erect is how Parker and Kirby mislead and downright lie to customers and to employees. Although US is in desperate need of an operatoins guru and a clear product definition and goal, it's most urgent need is a management strata which possesses absolute character. And character, humility, and integrity are wholly lacking in both Kriby and Parker. These two men have given anyone who associated with US in 2007 a nightmare ride and then they had the terminity to look you in the eye and lie -- a mistake can be forgiven, but not lying.
If US is serious about being a real airline with a real product, then it's time to put Mr. K & Mr. P on permanent KP duty. Give a new team a chance. I can't say that US will make it as the entire industry is up in the air. But at least it'll give US a chance and perhaps pax will experience a decent ride. Investors queue up in zone 99 behind the pax and employees.
Barry