Flight attendants at American Airlines continued to escalate cries to oust CEO Robert Isom with a protest at the airline’s headquarters on Thursday.
Crew members and other workers picketed outside American Airlines’ Dallas headquarters, chanting “Robert Isom got to go,” according to local news channel WFAA.
The protest is the latest action showing employees dissatisfaction with the airline’s leader. Earlier this week members of the board for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union representing 28,000 American Airlines flight attendants, issued a unanimous no-confidence vote on Isom, calling for a change in CEO.
It was the first time the flight attendant union had ever issued such a vote in its decades-long history. “From abysmal profits earned to operational failures that have front-line Workers sleeping on floors, this airline must course-correct before it falls even further behind,” said APFA President Julie Hedrick. “This level of failure begins at the very top, with CEO Robert Isom.”
Operational bungles in January ignited a firestorm among the airline’s employees, as poor handling of Winter Storm Fern left flight attendants stranded at airports with no hotels and the airline reported tepid annual earnings for 2025 compared to their competition.
The flight attendants’ union has also noted that while executive compensation remains high, workers are “paying the price” for “ongoing operational disruptions, declining industry rankings and management decisions.”
With their protests, the airline’s staffers say they are continuing to demand accountability from American’s executives, as well as improved operational support for front-line crew members, and a “credible turnaround strategy to restore performance.”
Over the weekend, Isom conceded to a meeting with the airline’s pilot union over the same issues, but it’s not clear when that meeting was scheduled to take place.
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