American Airlines CEO on Delta Competition: ‘We’ll Catch Them’
Photo Credit: All American Airlines pilot have an electronic flight bag accessible through a 1.35-pound iPad. American Airlines
Skift Take
American Airlines has a long way to go to catch Delta in operational and financial performance but we'll find out in the next two years, now that many of the merger hurdles are behind American, whether Doug Parker is the right guy to do it.
American Airlines Group CEO Doug Parker has a message for Delta Air Lines: We're coming.
Parker, speaking during American's fourth quarter and full-year earnings call Friday, acknowledged that it was an anomaly that American notched higher profit margins than Delta in 2015 because Delta took "a couple of billion dollars" losses on fuel hedges.
For example, in the fourth quarter Delta's fuel hedge loss was $340 million.
Otherwise, Delta's margins would be higher than American's, Parker conceded. But on the issue of profit margins, Parker of American said about Delta: "We'll catch them."
"We’re going to catch them out there yet, but we will," Parker said referring to Delta. "Their margins are highe
