MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Kirby is Operations (as COO and President) and clearly Operations seems to have an issue, evidenced that AA was in dead last in on time arrivals for the previous month-behind Spirit.

ijgordon

Yeah, the severance certainly "suggests" he didn't leave voluntarily. Though may have to wait for more official docs/filings to confirm that severance was paid.

Sounds like DP consolidating his power, possibly making Kirby take the fall for some of the operational issues of late.

Still think if they don't get their act together in the next year or two, and the corporates start momving away, DP may be pushed out (e.g, by shareholders), although to be fair, seems like AAL stock has held up relatively better than DAL/UAL.

24left

Interesting move. Anyone think this will actually improve things at AA?

(overhead someone at the DFW gate refer to AA as the "Dougie and Scotty Show". New title please)

Cityflyer10

So they paid severance ($13mm per WSJ) despite not having an employment contract with Kirby and didn't bother to get a non-compete as part of the severance? And better yet, the board signed off on this?!?

cova

I think this will improve things at UA. Some of us are going back to UA now with all the FF program changes at AA.

Now what I would like to see is UA hire Suzanne Rubin to head MileagePlus and let her restore it to what she thinks is best.

Superguy

Ding dong Scottie's gone!

Scott's a cutter and will likely make UA worse more competitive with AA.

I think this is good for us, and bad for UA. For UA, this is Smisek 2.0.

Superguy

Scott was part of what's been wrong with AA. How do you think he's going to improve things there?

rasheed

Well, fine if they think Kirby was at fault for operations performance. It has been miserable no matter who is at fault.

In terms of non-compete and severance, there isn't a lot of inside information in this particular business. If anything, we can hope that UA forces AA to be more competitive. That is the real problem to me, the lack of true innovation in the business.

Such situations are not that rare. I've seen similar in the entertainment business between Cedar Fair, Comcast and Disney (for example).

scubadu

And as I said, the situation that you described in your post was occurring, at least in my experience, at AA long before Kirby or Parker came on scene.

The key question is does AA actually, and honestly, care about improving in this area or not? If not, then Robert Isom will be just another warm body...

Regards

24left

Agreed.

Also, I've not seen exact load factor #s, but as long as the US3 are making money, and perhaps seats on key revenue routes are full, nothing will change.

It's only when the airlines need to fill seats and are looking for customers, that they offer enticements.

AA certainly had an opportunity to differentiate itself when revising Advantage. But there was no reason to be innovative. Anyone who wasn't happy could leave. Sure, this week UA MP looks better, but wait a bit.

I'm also curious: if the media reports say he received all that $$$ as severance, and he's already over at UA, how long ago was this really done?

My personal observation about "innovative" airlines is when they operate based on a narrow formula, perhaps within a defined geographic area, offering say one or maybe 2 classes of service and using the same or similar aircraft.

You already know examples. It is not AA, nor UA nor DL.

Fanjet

This is what I'm confused about. I find it odd that Kirby is going directly over to run one of AA's main competitors. Usually there is an time embargo placed on such moves.

JDiver

Absolutely amazing! I wonder what the quid pro quo was?

Alex_I

According to WSJ, "Like other top executives of American, Mr. Kirby doesn’t have an employment contract or a noncompete agreement."

This means that Mr. Parker and, perhaps, a few others, could jump the ship the same way any moment

scubadu

Did you actually read the WSJ source article?

Regards

ty97

The lack of non-compete was the part that jumped out at me most. Maybe that's not common in the aviation sector? But I certainly would have expect a non-compete. Think of how much nitty gritty detail about AA financials, operations, future route plans, etc Kirby know and now he's high-level at a direct competitor. Surprising.