Originally Posted by
fly747first
He didn't; Hector Adler did. Yes, you can argue that Parker was the one who hired Hector in the first place but it took Hector years to convince Parker that a budget was needed to make serious improvements.
Is Parker nearly as bad as Smisek? I certainly don't think so, but Parker has also made pretty serious, highly unintelligent mistakes and took years to fix them. Without AA, US would have never made it on its own after the DL-NW and UA-CO mergers.
OK... I get it. When something good happens at US, it's because someone other than Parker did it. When something bad happens, it's all of his fault (and idea).
And surprise, surprise!!! Parker brought on board Hector Adler for a specific purpose.
And please don't make it seem that the US Airways which Parker took over in 2005 was a blooming flower. Because it was far from that. The pre-merger management made some serious mistakes as well that didn't disappear when Parker and Kirby stepped in.