Originally Posted by Antarius

Parker has succeeded at many things, including slowly and methodically merging into larger and larger airlines, however he never really finished the job. US Airways was a hodgepodge and now American has their legacy mess added to the AWA/US mess. It reminds me of a more successful Swissair with their hunter strategy - buy a bunch of messes and somehow make it work.

Parker is able to hold it together somewhat, so he isnt Swissair or Etihad, but he hasnt managed to harmonize anything or take it to the next step like DL has done. Given Parker's history, I do not feel that he is capable of truly assimilating the various groups in to a single functioning entity like DL has managed.

tl;dr - I dont have a hatred for Parker or anything like many here do. I simply, based on history at US, the performance of AA, the financials etc. Am not sold on his ability to take American to the next step. AA seems aimlessly floating around with no real strategy. They have the 321T and intl widebody fleet that IMO, are the best in the country (D1 is still that Thompson vantage junk and Polaris is supremely overrated and barely rolled out), but then have these junky Oasis planes too. Now, with the backlash, they seem to have halted or slowed Oasis; did they not do research on this? The strategy seems to be throwing darts at a wall and seeing what sticks. Similarly, moving TATL to PHL - PHL is a cluster .... on the best of days and completely incapable of handling the traffic AA is eyeing for it.

Personally, what is frustrating is that AA reeks of unfulfilled potential. Both as a passenger and from a stockholder standpoint.

Also, yes DL has punted on replacing their fleet and eventually will need to, but that isnt by itself a giant problem. A bigger question is why is AA retiring less than 15 year old 767s?