New York (AFP) – American Airlines CEO Robert Isom faced pressure Monday from labor unions frustrated with the carrier’s financial performance and handling of recent weather disruptions. The airline’s union for flight attendants issued a “no confidence” vote in Isom, while the pilots’ union amplified a demand to meet with American’s board of directors after describing conversations alone with management as fruitless.
“We’re just not hearing what the long-term strategy is,” said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which headlined a recent message, “We Need Decisive Action.” Isom, a board member, would be expected to join the meeting, said Tajer, adding that the union is not seeking Isom’s ouster. “We don’t really care who’s running the airline,” Tajer told AFP. “We just want them to be wildly successful.”
American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In 2025, American Airlines reported profits of just $111 million. United Airlines made $3.4 billion in profit last year, while Delta Air Lines reported profits of $5.0 billion. The weak results translate into lower bonuses for employees under American’s profit-sharing plan. Tajer said some of the gap is because a greater share of American’s business is domestic, which has underperformed compared to international travel.
But some of American’s problems have been self-inflicted. In 2024, American scrapped an attempted revamp of its corporate booking system, denting performance. The unions are also frustrated with the carrier’s handling of the recent Winter Storm Fern, which battered the company’s hubs in Dallas and Charlotte. The storm had led American to cancel more than 9,000 flights, making it the “largest weather-related operational disruption in our history,” Isom said on a January 27 conference call.
However, the unions say the carrier was poorly prepared for the bad weather, which left workers stranded away from homes, sleeping in airports and placed on hold for six hours or more. “When the recent winter storm hamstrung our operations to the point where flight attendants were sleeping on airport floors, Robert Isom’s response was that it was just ‘part of our job’,” said Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.
“His tone-deaf leadership shows a complete disregard for the human element and is actively harming both American Airlines and the people who keep it running every day.”
© 2024 AFP
