American
Airlines’ CEO, Robert Isom, has expressed his willingness to sit down with
the company’s pilots union. His message arrives amid mounting concerns among the
carrier’s pilots about its management of a major storm in January and its
overall financials.
In a letter to Allied
Pilots Association President Nick Silva, Isom said that he and the carrier’s
board have considered the union’s recent entreaty for a formal meeting. As a
result, they now plan to meet with union leaders as soon as possible.
"The Board
and I are aligned with you in the desire to make American the strongest airline
possible in every respect," Isom said in the letter obtained by Reuters.
The Allied Pilots
Association represents more than 16,000 American Airlines pilots. On Friday,
the group formally asked company management for permission to present its
concerns directly to the board of directors.
Aviators’ request
comes at a tricky time for the airline, which is trying to prove to investors
it can close a profit gap with competitors and keep its turnaround on track. At
the same time, some employees criticized the company’s handling of a sweeping
winter storm that disrupted flights across the U.S. last month.
“This assessment
is not the result of a single interaction with management, an isolated
operational disruption, or an individual earnings report; it is the result of
persistent patterns of operational, cultural, and strategic shortcomings,” the
Allied Pilots Association’s board of directors wrote last week.
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