Doug Parker travel tips

When an airline’s own pilots call its service “outright embarrassing,” and deride the company’s corporate culture as “toxic,” you can safely say that airline has a problem.

The U.S. airline industry today is dominated by four big airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines. Together, they fly 78% of all of the seats in the U.S. market.

Former American Airlines CEO Doug Parker will step down as chairman and leave the carrier’s board of directors in April. The move ends his decade-long tenure in at the airline that began in 2013 after he successfully orchestrated American’s merger with US Airways.

As if JetBlue Airways didn’t have enough on its plate, the airline has unveiled a branding refresh with a new all-blue livery for its fleet.

When Muslim Advocates and the NAACP issue a joint letter accusing the U.S. airline industry of racism, it’s big news. And when the NAACP, the “nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization,” follows that up with an advisory specifically questioning the racial policies of the nation’s largest airline, American, it’s nothing less than a media firestorm. Indeed, all the major news media covered the story exhaustively. And “American Airlines” has been a trending Twitter topic for several days.

American Airlines today announced its financial-performance numbers for the fourth quarter and the full year.

When American Airlines merged with US Airways, American’s disgruntled unions were unanimous in their support for what amounted to a hostile takeover of the much-larger American by Doug Parker and his mid-sized US Airways.

Back in 2013, when Doug Parker, then US Airways’ chief, succeeded in what was in essence a hostile takeover of American Airlines, he was well regarded by American’s pilots union, whose support was crucial to his campaign. That was then.

At this week’s J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation and Industrials Conference, American Airlines chief Doug Parker spent a full 40 minutes detailing his vision for American’s future and expressing full confidence that his airline would come to be regarded as “best in class.” Implicit in his remarks, however, was the recognition that the airline currently falls well short of that goal, and that a key impediment to the company’s success is its strained relations with workers.

American Airlines announced some new in-flight options this week, which is news that should interest the budget-conscious traveler. The changes were framed as being good—but upon unpacking, it’s clear the airline has a low bar for “perks.”

American Airlines is bringing carry-on bags back to its Basic Economy fares this September. In a release this week, the airline said it’s “removing the carry-on bag restriction that is currently part of its domestic and short-haul international Basic Economy fare rules” effective September 5, for tickets purchased or flown that day.