道格·帕克
(Doug Parker) 将于 3 月退休，担任美国航空公司 (American Airlines) 的首席执行官，他通过一系列导致美国航空业大规模整合的合并使这家航空公司成为全球最大的航空公司。
现年 60 岁的帕克将由罗伯特·伊索姆 (Robert Isom) 接替，后者在过去五年中一直担任公司总裁。帕克卸任 CEO 后仍将担任美国航空的董事长。
帕克是美国航空公司任职时间最长的首席执行官，也是过去 50 年来航空业最重要的高管之一。他是一系列重塑行业的合并的建筑师。这些举措使航空公司更有利可图，但导致乘客选择更少，票价往往更高。
在过去的 20 年中，美国 10 家主要航空公司已合并为仅 4 家——美国航空、联合航空 (UAL)、达美航空 (DAL) 和西南航空 (LUV)。在大流行之前，它们承载了美国航空业约 80% 的航空运输量，此后由于国际航空旅行的限制而略有减少。仅美国航空公司就处理了美国航空公司乘客飞行里程的 23%。
帕克于 2001 年 9 月 10 日开始担任美国西部航空公司的首席执行官，该航空公司当时是美国第八大航空公司，也就是恐怖袭击导致所有美国航空公司停飞的前一天。他带领公司度过了那场危机，这是该行业在 2020 年大流行到来之前最具挑战性的时期。
在帕克的领导下，美国西部航空公司将继续收购两家较大的航空公司——美国航空公司和美国航空公司——当这两家航空公司都破产时。在每种情况下，合并后的航空公司都保留较大公司的名称。其他航空公司也以合并作为回应。
虽然帕克表示他相信美国航空业基本上已经结束了他在过去 20 年中帮助领导的合并趋势，但美国航空最近宣布与捷蓝航空结盟，美国司法部已起诉以不公平为由予以阻止。减少竞争。
除了竞争减少的问题外，美国航空今年还面临服务问题，因为它试图回应休闲旅客被压抑的旅行需求。它的服务在 10 月和今年早些时候崩溃了，将中断归咎于缺乏足够的人员配备。数以千计的航班取消使数十万乘客滞留。
美国和其他航空公司从联邦政府获得的财政援助意味着在大流行期间无法裁员，美国和其他航空公司提供提前退休和自愿离职方案，以在旅行基本停止的情况下裁员并限制劳动力成本在 2020 年。从那时起，它和其他航空公司都难以填补所有职位。航空公司的工会，包括其强大的美国飞行员工会，将服务和人员配备问题归咎于管理不善。
大流行延迟退休计划
帕克周二表示，他认为在担任首席执行官 20 年后退休是有道理的。
“这是我们一直在关注的事情，”他在接受 CNBC 采访时说。 “坦率地说，大流行推迟了一点。总是有工作要做。我们的财务基础稳固。复苏正在进行中。需求正在恢复。所以这感觉正是时候。我们知道我们有合适的人选.”
自 2020 年初以来，美国航空已损失 140 亿美元，其中不包括特殊项目，例如它和其他航空公司从联邦政府获得的财政援助。在此期间，该公司的长期债务飙升了 60% 至 360 亿美元，尽管这些贷款和出售额外股票以筹集现金让该航空公司手头的现金比进入大流行时要多。
但 Isom 表示，尽管两年来亏损严重且债务不断增加，但他对航空公司未来的前景感到兴奋。
伊索姆在 CNBC 上说：“我们在建设美国人方面做得很好，不仅要在大流行中幸存下来，而且要在业务恢复后蓬勃发展。” “当我们展望 2022 年时，一切都是为了在客户回来时为他们提供最可靠的航空公司，然后让美国航空尽快恢复盈利。”
但他表示，他无法预测何时会恢复盈利。
“这将取决于需求的回升，”Isom 说。 “我所看到的是，当需求回升时，美国人会做得很好。”
受此消息影响，美国航空 (AAL) 的股价在早盘交易中上涨 2%。
Doug Parker, architect of merger trend that resulted in four major US airlines, is retiring
Doug Parker will retire in March as CEO of American Airlines, the airline that he made the world's largest through a series of mergers that led to a massive consolidation of the US airline industry.
Parker, 60, will be succeeded by Robert Isom, who has served as the company's president for the last five years. Parker will remain as chairman of American after stepping down as CEO.
Parker is the longest serving US airline CEO as well as one of the most important executives in the airline industry in the last 50 years. He was the architect of a series of mergers that reshaped the industry. Those moves made the airlines more profitable but led to fewer choices and often higher fares for passengers.
Over the last 20 years the 10 major US airlines have been consolidated down to only four -- American, United (UAL), Delta (DAL) and Southwest (LUV). Between them they carried about 80% of of the US industry's air traffic before the pandemic, and slightly less since then due to restrictions on international air travel. American alone handles 23% of the miles flown by passengers on US airlines.
Parker started as CEO of America West Airlines, then the nation's eighth largest airline on September 10, 2001, the day before the terrorist attack that grounded all US airlines. He navigated his company through that crisis, the industry's most challenging period until the arrival of the pandemic in 2020.
Under Parker, America West would then go on to buy two larger airlines — US Air and American — when both carriers were in bankruptcy. In each case, the combined airline kept the name of the larger company. Other airlines responded with mergers as well.
While Parker has said he believes the US airline industry is essentially done with the merger trend he helped to lead over the last 20 years, American recently announced an alliance with JetBlue, which the US Justice Department has sued to block on the grounds that it unfairly reduces competition.
In addition to questions about reduced competition, American has struggled with service problems this year as it tried to respond to leisure passengers' pent-up demand for travel. Its service melted down in October and earlier in the year, blaming the disruptions on a lack of adequate staffing. The thousands of flight cancellations stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The financial assistance that American and other airlines received from the federal government meant it couldn't lay off staff during the pandemic, American and other airlines offered early retirement and voluntary separation packages to trim staff and limit labor costs when travel essentially ground to a halt in 2020. It and other airlines have had trouble filling all the positions since then. Unions at the airlines, including its powerful pilots union at American, has blamed poor management for the service and staffing problems.
Pandemic delayed retirement plans
Parker said Tuesday he felt it made sense to retire after 20 years as CEO.
"This is something we've been looking at for quite some time," he said in an interview on CNBC. "Frankly the pandemic delayed it a little bit. There's always work to do. We're on solid financial footing. The recovery is underway. Demand is coming back. So this feels like exactly the right time. We know we have the right person."
American has lost $14 billion since the start of 2020, excluding special items such as financial assistance it and other airlines received from the federal government. The company's long-term debt has soared 60% to $36 billion during that time, although those loans and sales of additional shares to raise cash has left the airline with more cash on hand that it had going into the pandemic.
But Isom said he is excited by the outlook for the airline going forward, despite the two years of deep losses and mounting debt.
"We've done a great job building American to not just survive the pandemic but to thrive once business returns," Isom said on CNBC. "As we look at 2022, it's all about having the most reliable airline possible for customers as they come back and then returning American to profitability as soon as possible."
But he said he couldn't predict when that return to profitability would occur.
"It's going to depend on demand coming back," Isom said. "What I do see is that when demand comes back, American is going to do very well."
Shares of American (AAL) rose 2% in morning trading on the news.
