American Airlines CEO Sees Suppliers And Storms As Biggest 2025 Problems

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom cited supply chain disruptions and constant weather threats as the biggest problems the airline faces as he looks ahead to 2025.

Isom joined Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan on Thursday on an economic outlook panel hosted by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. Charlotte is the site of the bank’s headquarters and the airline’s second largest hub: each company has about 15,000 Charlotte employees. About 600 people attended the panel.

Asked what he sees for the coming year, Isom said, “The problem right now is that we’re dependent on the supply chain” that has come up short on providing aircraft and air traffic controllers. He named three key American suppliers: Raytheon, GE and Airbus, as well as Boeing. “We’ve got to get our act together,” he said. “We’ve got to get past this covid hangover.”

Isom also noted that American carries about 650,000 passengers daily. They want their flights to arrive on time. “If you disappoint 1%, that’s 6,500 people,” he noted. A weather event at a hub might mean that you disappoint 10% of your passengers one day – that is 65,000 people, Isom said. That’s a lot of social media posts.

For American and other carriers, the only way to address the problems is “We have to build an airline that has so much buffer in it,” Isom said. “We’re trying to find a way to build buffers to everything we do.”

The primary buffer is to have more reserve pilots and mechanics available to address whatever problem comes up, which is expensive. Senior widebody pilots can make $600,000 annually, Isom said, and mechanics are also well paid, thanks to good union contracts.

As for his view on the economic outlook, Moynihan said, “I’m pretty optimistic right now. “There’s a lot of demand out there: people want to get value for their dollars.

“Everybody’s feeling okay,” Moynihan said, although he noted “There’s geopolitical unrest all over the place,” including in normally stable countries Korea and France, and high interest rates create “a drag.”

Isom acknowledged that air travel is strong, with record travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. People have money and prioritize travel experiences, a trend once termed “revenge travel” that seems not to have slackened since the pandemic ended. Dec. 1, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, was the busiest day in U.S. commercial air travel history as the Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 3.1 million passengers.

Both Isom and Moynihan emphasized that Charlotte has been a good place to do business and build their companies, and that the two companies benefit one another. Isom noted that “Having a hub airport is like being a port city of old:” Moynihan said American manages to “make sure our people can get to where we want to go.” The airline provides about 700 daily departures to 170 destinations. Said Isom, “We’re fortunate that we have a banking community that really appreciates what we can do.”

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