American CEO Robert Isom spoke in Washington in September 2023. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch)
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom finally punched back at United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, a longtime nemesis, on Tuesday, a day of diminished expectations throughout the airline industry.
Kirby has been saying for a few years that United has become a premier airline, while American has not. He reiterated that view at the JP Morgan investor conference on Tuesday morning, where he spoke immediately ahead of Isom. Kirby also restated some other key themes, including the importance of being number one at Chicago O’Hare and his awarenes that United stands out because its seven hubs are all profitable. Some other carriers operate unprofitable hubs, he said.
JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker asked Isom whether he had any response to Kirby’s continuing disparagement of American. Previously, Isom has consistently avoided responding, most recently in January, when American’s earnings call followed United’s and Baker asked Isom on the earnings call whether he wanted to respond.
This time the answer was yes.
“I worked for Scott and with Scott for a long time,” said Isom. “I’ve seen him be right on a lot of stuff. He’s a brilliant man.”
Also, Isom said, ”I’ve seen him wrong on a lot of stuff. In this case, he’s dead wrong.”
Isom explained that “American had a weaker hand going into the pandemic” and “Certainly, we were hamstrung on the way out. We had 250 aircraft we couldn’t fly because of our regional shortfall,” he said, referring to the inability to fly regional jets due to a shortage of regional pilots.
“Scott says this kind of stuff I’m sure because he would like nothing better than to not have American Airlines as a competitor,” Isom said.
But “We’re a premium product competitor,” said Isom, who reeled off additional American advantages, including “a great fleet,” expanded flying in Dallas and Charlotte that has led to “an incredible Sunbelt position” and a trans-Pacific partnership with JAL. “American’s not going anywhere,” he said.
Early in their careers, both Isom and Kirby worked at America West Airlines. Isom was hired in1995, while Kirby was hired in 1996. After two mergers, America West management took over at American Airlines, where Kirby was president and Isom was chief operating officer and executive vice president.
In 2016, Kirby was asked to leave American due to executive suite tensions. Isom took his spot as president. Kirby subsequently was named president of United, then advanced to CEO, where he has led a transformation that has United challenging Delta as the industry leader and clearly surpassing American.
“Robert punched back at Kirby: it was good to see,” said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association, which represents American pilots. “Kirby has definitely built a mammoth network at United but it was good to see Isom punch back. We like to see a good competitive fight. That’s what we’re about.”
After a good year in 2024, airline shares have declined in 2025. At the close on Tuesday, American shares were down 8% for the day and 33% for the year. The decline came after American, like several peers, reduced first quarter guidance due to a reduction in expected revenue. American said its first quarter loss would be 60 cents to 80 cents, rather than 20 cents to 40 cents and that revenue would be flat rather than up 3% to 5%.
On the call, Isom said that American’s reduced guidance largely reflected events at National Airport, long a profit center for the carrier as well as for predecessor US Airways. The crash of American Flight 5342 on Jan. 29 “had a real impact on this first quarter,” Isom said. “Combine 5342 with the uncertainty in the economy right now,” as well as Los Angeles wildfires and winter weather in the South, “and then certainly domestic weakness in March – these are the primary reasons behind our adjustments in revenue.”
