American Airlines is looking to dominate Travel in the USA in the near future…
If I were looking to book serious travel in the next year. I’d have an extra preference on AA. Below is what my rep said to me and below that, I have some more things to consider. AA is responding to the crisis with money and lot’s of it! They are looking to hire away as many aviation employees as possible it seems. They are also concluding the largest aircraft order in history. AA seemed to have been hit hardest by aviation woes, they seem most bent on turning that over with cash being king.
Hi there Jacob. Hope all is well with you.
Ill share what I can with you. Hopefully this helps. Not just operational, but airline wide. These are talking points from HDQ.
Capacity plan
Our fleet harmonization project is now nearly complete. Our last A321 is going into the shop this quarter, is a full year ahead of our original schedule.
Since 2013 we’ve invested $24 billion to create the youngest mainline fleet of aircraft among U.S. network carriers. Our modern fleet has allowed us to improve our fuel efficiency by 8.5% since 2013 — the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road for a year.
Our new narrowbody aircraft are up to 44% more efficient per seat we fly when compared to our retired aircrafts that flew the same standard distance
More people are traveling for blended business leisure purposes, and willing to go by themselves into a premium fare product when a cheaper one is available.
We see a blurring of lines where the trip patterns are changing.
Thursday, which is still our biggest business day of the week, is also becoming one of our biggest leisure days of the week.
We're having more people who buy business style fare products, travel as if it's a business trip, but they're going to places like Fort Walton Beach.
And we can trace the things where people work Fridays remotely or can spend a week or two at a time, working from some place that is not where they live.
Our premium cabin sales have been the most robust in places like the Caribbean and leisure destinations in the U.S.
We still expect business travel to come back in full, but it will come back in a different way.
The overall mix of business customers, how they travel and how we serve them.
Small and medium-sized business travel remains the strongest segment.
We're optimistic that as corporate travel returns in a significant way this year and as companies come back more fully into the office and get back on the road, we're going to be back on track.
Staffing - We’re optimistic about attracting top talent. American pays well and is a great place to work. We’re hiring 20,000 people at American this year, and we always have more applicants than we have positions to fill because it’s such a great company to work for
As far as I can tell, in the below above email from my rep, especially with Pilots, She is understating that American is “Paying well”.
Here is an episode of the “Pilot to Pilot” Podcast where this issue is talked about by folks in that industry. These guys are just blown away by how American is hiring and how they are paying.
There is some more in the news here too: Like this Article and this one also. While all of the big airlines are employing big training strategies and other measures for more pilots and staff. AA is the only one putting their “money where their mouth is”. Cash is King people. The guys in the podcast are wondering how AA can afford to pay pilots as they appear to be and I’d say it’s those new planes (the largest aircraft order in history ) is part of why perhaps.
I’m staying on top of this, but for now, even though AA has never been a personal favorite of mine, I will be looking more to AA where possible for my clients in the next year so long as their OTP (On Time Performance) continues to improve. American partner, British Airways is struggling, but Finnair and Iberian seem to be doing well (so far)! Asian Partners Cathay Pacific remains anemic, but Japan Airlines seems to be doing well. Outlook for Australian Partner Qantas is yet to have its test when summer (our winter) down under hits in 2022/23. So far Qantas’s performance for this summer (their winter) does not bode well for this.
In the end, as far the operations that AA conducts itself, if money can fix it, then they are going to!
