American Airlines News

American Airlines proposed a 16.9 percent pay raise to pilots in a contract offer to the Allied Pilots Association (APA) union, CEO Robert Isom said Thursday.

Good morning from Skift. It's Tuesday, January 18, in New York City. Here's what you need to know about the business of travel today.

U.S. airlines avoided broad bankruptcies and cuts with the record $74 billion in government Covid-19 aid. But the relief was industry-specific and left out a lot of other sectors, including hotels and restaurants. That has meant a bumpy national economic recovery.

In Skift’s top stories this week, the UK opens up more non-essential travel, Reserve with Google is ending, Hawaii's residents say tourism is worth its troubles and American Airlines sues Sabre — again.

In Skift's top stories this week, Expedia conducted another round of layoffs, tech investors are drooling over the events industry, American Airlines is mulling bringing back the 737 Max before the end of the year, and Google founding itself dealing with a U.S. antirust lawsuit.

Big U.S. airlines have erased most of the ghosts from their past. They don't engage in many market share battles or fare wars anymore. They don't dump capacity. But they still have labor disputes with their unions. And those can be as disastrous to operations today as they were two or three decades ago.

Let's hope American Airlines can find enough pilots willing to fly extra in December. Otherwise, it will be a mess for customers.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker is playing the long game. Surprise pay hikes for pilots and flight attendants will cost roughly $350 million in 2018 and 2019. But if airlines truly want to avoid more customer service-related dramas, one way to get there is to adequately compensate your workforce.

American Airlines Group CEO sounds as though he has turned into a labor activist. OK, not really, but he knows you can't have a successful company unless its corporate culture is healthy and its employees have a real stake in its well-being.

The selective outrage is cynical at best.