Longtime airline govt and present American Airways CEO Doug Parker will retire on March 31, the service announced Tuesday.
Parker shall be changed on the helm by the airline’s president, Robert Isom, however will proceed as chairman of Fort Price, Texas-based airline’s board.
“I’ve labored with Robert for twenty years and I’m extremely happy that he would be the subsequent CEO of American Airways, which is actually the most effective job in our trade,” Parker stated in a press release.
“His efforts to information and help our staff all through the pandemic have been nothing in need of phenomenal. We’re well-positioned to take full benefit of our trade’s restoration, and now could be the fitting time for a handoff we have now deliberate and ready for.”
Parker grew to become CEO of America West simply 10 days earlier than 9/11, and led the service via the disaster.
He then oversaw the merger of US Airways and America West Airways in 2005, changing into chief govt of the newly shaped firm, which might go on to merge with American Airways in 2013, when Parker assumed his present function.
“It has been the privilege of my life to serve for 20 years as an airline CEO,” he stated. “I’m without end grateful to the American staff, whose dedication to taking good care of one another and our clients has by no means wavered and can proceed to drive our success going ahead.”
Isom, who was named president of American Airways in 2016, additionally has many years of airline trade expertise.
“Over the previous a number of years, our airline and our trade have gone via a interval of transformative change. And with change comes alternative,” he stated in a press release.
John Cahill, lead impartial director of American’s board, hailed Isom as “the fitting chief to hold American ahead into its subsequent interval of progress.”
With the announcement, Parker is now the second main US airline CEO to announce his retirement this yr because the trade prepares for what may show to be a tumultuous restoration from the depths of the pandemic.
In June, Southwest Airways CEO Gary Kelly announced plans to step down in February.
