A Yale management professor has stepped into the middle of American Airlines’ labor revolt with an opinion piece so lavish in its praise of CEO Robert Isom that it demands closer scrutiny. The column, published in Fortune, purports to offer “strategic context” for American’s underperformance and union backlash, but instead reads like a gratuitous defense that collapses under even modest fact-checking. What follows is not a disagreement over style or leadership philosophy, but a paragraph-by-paragraph dismantling of an argument that unmistakably falls flat.
A Yale Professor’s Glowing Defense Of American Airlines CEO Robert Isom Falls Apart On Contact With Reality
71-year-old Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is not a lobbyist or a political hack. He is the Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies and Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice at the Yale School of Management. His latest column in Fortune, co-authored with Steven Tian, the research director at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, seeks to defend Isom and has frankly left me puzzled as to ulterior motives…which I’ll discuss below. But first, let’s deconstruct every paragraph of their fluff piece:
Dramatic headlines across business publications declare that there is a “civil war” within American Airlines, with union leaders expressing a lack of confidence in the CEO, Robert Isom. Pundits are piling on, with the groupthink of armchair analysts reflexively comparing American’s stock chart to admittedly impressive peers such as Delta and United, without recognizing their differences as compared to American, which flies the world’s largest number of passengers by far.
A couple points. First, the “civil war” at American Airlines is hardly “groupthink” or “punditry” when the unions representing pilots and flight attendants have been publicly condemning the direction the airline is heading. But the insinuation in the opening paragraph appears to be that AA is in a different category because it flies more passengers.
As Germany’s revered Konrad Adenauer once said, “We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.”
Indeed, the recent misleading media narrative completely misses the strategic context. The real facts are that Robert Isom is leading American to new heights despite the potshots of misinformed critics and those with their own motivations. Isom’s leadership is a remarkable model of resilience on all dimensions.
Going back to elementary school, I was always taught to “show don’t tell” in my writing. There’s a lot of “telling” in this paragraph…will they “show” their work to validate their assertion? Let’s see what “strategic context” we are missing…
Of course, it is impossible to diminish the excellence of Delta and United’s leadership – on all dimensions. There are no better CEOs in the nation than in the airline industry – in operational, financial, strategic domains and their individual characters are sterling. But a superficial comparison between Delta, United, and American across certain headline metrics can be deceiving.
Okay, please go on..let’s see what is so superficial.
Let’s start with the number everyone loves to cite: American earned $111 million in 2025, while Delta generated $5 billion and United $3.4 billion in pure profits – with United and Delta’s stock outperforming American’s over the last few years. Case closed, right? Not remotely, and for several reasons.
Continue…
First, of note, American has not produced an annual loss during Isom’s time as CEO. Not even during his first year on the job in 2022, when the pandemic was still having a dramatic impact on the industry and American lost nearly $2 billion in the first quarter of the year.
Who is moving the goalposts now? The question is not profitability, but comparative profitability.
As it relates to 2025, the superficial comparison to peers ignores the most important structural reality in the airline industry today: United currently enjoys a $1 billion-plus annual cost advantage over American because its non-pilot labor groups — flight attendants, mechanics, fleet service workers, and customer service employees — are operating under contracts that dramatically lag market rates. American has contracts in place with all of those groups and its flight attendants are paid roughly 35% more than United’s. Pilots are at parity with identical profit-sharing provisions. When United’s contracts inevitably reset to market — and they will — a massive portion of that margin gap will evaporate overnight.
That analysis fails to explain how Delta Air Lines manages to exceed the profitability of United and American combined and pay its workers industry-leading wages. Second, United says it has already worked in retroactive pay to its forecasting, but even if it has not…the numbers do not add up.
Even if “United currently enjoys a $1 billion-plus annual cost advantage over American” that does not bridge the huge gap in profit: $3.4 billion for United versus $111 million for American. So the idea that the difference between United and American is labor costs is laughably false.
In other words, Isom has chosen to invest in his people. American has more than 130,000 employees, some 87% of whom are unionized, which is nearly 15x the private sector average for unionized workers in the United States. American has more unionized employees than any airline in the world. Isom paid them fairly, ahead of the competition, because it was the right thing to do. The unions now attacking him represent the best-compensated workforce in the industry. The irony would be amusing if it weren’t so consequential.
What tripe. American paid them because their contracts were amenable and they negotiated for new deals…there was no altruism at play. In fact, I would have hoped that Isom learned from his predecessor Doug Parker that altruism does not work without a vision.
We’ve heard grumblings from some that the “no confidence” vote from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), as well as grumbling from the Allied Pilots Association, reflects inter-union political dynamics. In one case, a rival faction competing for representation rights through posturing and pandering — more than genuine employee dissatisfaction with Isom, who is anecdotally beloved by his employees. Contract ratification votes tell the real story: 87% approval from flight attendants, over 90% from mechanics. His “No Jerks” leadership philosophy is not corporate branding — it is a lived culture that his workforce recognizes even when their union leaders find it expedient to claim otherwise.
This strikes me as so disingenuous. Claiming this is “inter-union political dynamics” really is a slap in the face to the unions and their members who understandably want to understand why their carrier lags the competition so much in terms of both vision and profitability. Anecdotally, I don’t think flight attendants hate Isom, but they hardly love him when he has not presented a vision they can buy into, a key difference between Kirby (who has pulled it off even though flight attendant contract negotiations have stalled for years).
Second, that comparison to peers misses the fact that American has the strongest network in the U.S. While United and Delta serve a higher mix of international travelers, American offers the most access to air travel in the country while still offering a fantastic product and experience for international, business, and premium flyers. American will also benefit from its new partnership with Citi, which is on track to bring in $10 billion-plus annually by the end of the decade, a partnership that will put American in a very competitive position with its peers at Delta (American Express) and United (Chase) as it continues to pursue higher-margin growth markets.
If there was any credibility left about the authors, it is gone. No, American Airlines does not have the “strongest” network in the USA by many metrics and no, American Airlines does not offer a “fantastic product and experience.” In fact, one reason Delta and United have performed better is because of is fanatics product, with seatback screens and affordable (or in the case of Delta, free) Wi-Fi. Another is because of their superior networks, which better balances domestic and international.
Third, that comparison to peers ignores the fact that Isom has had to navigate unique idiosyncratic headwinds that no CEO could have prevented and which none of American’s competitors had to deal with.
Like what?
American operates the largest fleet in the world and is one of the largest customers of Boeing equipment. When Boeing’s well-documented production and delivery crises cascaded through the industry, no carrier absorbed more disruption than American because of its fleet order book and the timing of aircraft deliveries. Isom deserves credit for trying to mitigate a terrible supply chain and OEM situation as best he could, by optimizing the flight schedule to account for vast equipment shortages and disruptions.
The idea that this problem is acute to American Airlines is absurd. United Airlines has a lot more 787 Dreamliners on order than American and has weathered delivery and certification delays far more competently. Furthermore, AA has taken delivery of more Airbus aircraft than Boeing aircraft since Isom has been CEO. Most importantly, AA deferred 2/3 of its 787-9 Dreamliner orders in December 2023 (7 instead of 11 in 2024, 4 instead of 10 in 2025). It’s just not a credible argument.
The root of AA’s problem was the C-Suite, which included Isom, prematurely retiring aircraft early in the pandemic, including its Boeing 757 and 767 (more defensible) and Airbus A330 (far less defensible) fleet.
Then there is the weather. Winter Storm Fern in January 2026 was the largest weather-related operational disruption in American’s 100-year history — over 9,000 flights canceled in four days, with an estimated $150 million–$200 million revenue impact. Fern simultaneously paralyzed both DFW and Charlotte, American’s two largest hubs, with ice and freezing rain. In contrast, Delta and United’s primary hubs in Atlanta and O’Hare were barely grazed. Winter Storm Gianna similarly disproportionately hit American’s eastern hubs a few days later.
Yes, but we are not talking about 2026…we are talking about 2025 financial performance.
In early 2025, Isom also had to navigate the tragedy of Flight 5342 — the devastating midair collision at Reagan National caused by a wayward military helicopter, through no fault of American’s. Isom’s response was universally praised: immediate, compassionate, and accountable. He was on the ground at DCA within hours. The lingering DCA flight restrictions that followed have imposed ongoing revenue and operational consequences unique to American, but there are times when a CEO has to prioritize more than just exclusively the bottom line, and Isom deserves credit for navigating through this tragedy showing that doing well is not antithetical to doing good.
Isom handled the AA5342 crash superbly…kudos to him for his statesmanships in quickly arriving on-scene and overseeing AA’s response. Nothing but praise from me on that issue.
But once again, there’s a disconnect between his strong leadership, temporary flight restrictions at Washington National Airport, and the idea that “there are times when a CEO has to prioritize more than just exclusively the bottom line,” as if his integrity is the reason that traffic flow into DCA was reduced.
Beyond the Boeing crisis and domestic revenue exposure, historic weather targeting American’s key hubs, the Flight 5342 tragedy, and a structural labor cost disadvantage that is actually a virtue disguised as a weakness, there was also of course the post-“Liberation Day” three-month consumer spending collapse that disproportionately hit domestic leisure demand for air travel. This is the full context for why, despite the slings and arrows of critics, Isom deserves credit for navigating a uniquely challenging situation with aplomb.
Yes, tariffs hurt Americans and yes, they hurt demand for flights when Americans must pay more for the same product due to misguided trade policy. But it strikes me as theoretical, not factual, that this so “disproportionately” hurt AA. In court, I would object on the basis of “assumes facts not in evidence.”
All the while, consider the positive accomplishments for which Isom receives little to no credit. Isom has paid down debt well ahead of schedule, deleveraging the balance sheet to the tune of $17 billion since mid-2021, a pace that would have seemed improbable a few years ago when many creditors believed American’s bankruptcy might be imminent. He ordered 260 new aircraft in 2024, the second-largest fleet investment in American’s history, with options for 193 more. He is also rolling out free high-speed satellite Wi-Fi across the entire fleet, including regional jets — which means American has free high-speed Wi-Fi on more aircraft than any other carrier in the U.S.
United and Delta have also de-leveraged their balance sheets, Untied is growing even faster, Delta already offers free Wi-Fi onboard, and United is rapidly installing high-speed Starlink, which will transform onboard Wi-Fi as we know it. Regional jets are singled out, but United already installed Starlink on hundreds of regional jets…
He has introduced new technology that lets passengers instantly self-rebook disrupted flights, an innovation that no other major carrier has deployed at scale. He expanded biometric screening, deployed next-generation kiosks, and built a connection-risk prediction tool operating across seven hubs that flags at-risk passengers and recommends departure holds in real time. American reached its 1,000th mainline aircraft milestone in August 2025, giving it not only the largest but also the youngest fleet among U.S. network carriers. And he placed the largest-ever conditional order for hydrogen-electric engines in aviation history, positioning American at the frontier of zero-emission flight. He also has expertise in partnerships – growing relationships with key international partners, expanding the oneworld alliance, and pursuing a creative partnership with JetBlue that was working well before it was struck down because of the regulatory environment at the time.
Sorry, but the AA app is still vastly inferior to Delta and United apps, especially during irregular operations (as I recently found out). United introduced its “Connection Saver” technology in 2019. Playing catch-up does not make someone a great leader. AA’s 1000th mainline delivery was an order placed before Isom became CEO…
Importantly, he has also taken on a leadership role in advocating for reforming air traffic control in the U.S. and working across government and industry to make the aviation system even safer. And he is the driving force behind billions of dollars of investments at major hub airports in the U.S., including the new regional concourse at Reagan National and a critical $5 billion project to expand and upgrade Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. And sellside equity analysts across Wall Street remain overwhelmingly positive.
Bastian and Kirby had done the same thing and if anything, Kirby has been much more aggressive in courting the Trump administration to push forward ATC modernization. The “new regional concourse at Reagan National” was actually completed before Isom became CEO…
These unheralded accomplishments reflect why Robert Isom was picked as the successor to his legendary predecessor, Doug Parker, in the first place. The architect of the modern U.S. airline industry, Parker navigated mergers and restructurings to build American Airlines into the world’s largest airline, working alongside flight attendants and pilots in rescuing the industry through challenges ranging from 9/11, to the Great Recession to the COVID pandemic. The seamless succession from Parker to Isom reflected a textbook leadership handoff, with Isom building on Parker’s successes in playing to American’s strengths – even if those strengths are sometimes underappreciated by business media.
Is this the same Parker who erroneously predicted AA would never lose money again and who destroyed more shareholder value than any other CEO, with cutbacks on the product for consumers and furloughs for employees? “Legendary” may be the right word, but not for the reason the Yale authors think…
The aviation industry is just one to two generations away from flamboyant founders like Juan Trippe, Eddie Rickenbacker, Lamar Muse, Herb Kelleher, Ed Beauvais, and their charismatic disciples Bob Crandall, Ed Colodny, Al Casey, Frank Borman, Frank Lorenzo, and Gordon Bethune. Isom, like his predecessor Doug Parker, is not a showman like the flyboys of past generations. In this era of CEO-as-celebrities, some analysts don’t puzzle out the story beneath the surface. Unlike others, Isom does not court glory for himself while delegating the heavy lifting. Rather, he rolls up his sleeves and takes challenges head on, rallying leaders and frontline teams with a focus on getting work done instead of seeking adulation and attention. The underlying facts tell a remarkable story of how Isom is leading American brilliantly and boldly.
I mean, may I respond with a picture?
But at a fundamental level, no, he has not rallied leaders and frontline teams. The labor angst we frequently hear about is not punditry, but Isom’s reality.
Pan Am’s Juan Trippe was the CEO who transported nautical language like “boarding, captain, first officer, cabin, galley, port/starboard, deck, autopilot, and logbook” to air travel. Isom reminds us of one more maritime expression pundits need to consider, that is he is the epitome of “still waters run deep.”
Holy trite statement, Batman!
My Thoughts
When I first read this story it reminded me of the work of Ted Reed, who also (perhaps not coincidentally) writes for Forbes. I’ve called out Mr. Reed multiple times for his seemingly agenda-driven distortion of facts, particularly when it came to Gulf carriers. In 2019, I even asked him:
(no response was ever given)
And I cannot wonder if the same is at play here. What would motivate someone to so gratuitously and disingenuously (due to the sloppy research, particularly in terms of timelines) lavish praise on Isom? Are they on the AA payroll? Do they own AA stock?
One of our favorite commenters has proudly proclaimed he is a Delta stockholder. I strongly believe that influences his evangelistic cheering for Delta and it is one reason I don’t own any individual airline stock. At least he’s correct that Delta is leading the industry.
In this case, the writers are either very poorly misinformed or very much acting in bad faith by presenting a narrative that just does not hold up to even superficial scrutiny.
CONCLUSION
The Fortune column defending Robert Isom is not merely unconvincing, it is fundamentally unserious. It relies on selective timelines, exaggerated claims, and rhetorical sleight of hand to explain away American Airlines’ persistent underperformance and escalating labor unrest. When unions representing tens of thousands of frontline employees issue no-confidence votes, dismissing that reality as punditry or internal politics is not insight, it is obsequious denial.
Whether motivated by access, ideology, or something else entirely, the authors present a version of American Airlines that does not match operational results, financial comparisons, or employee sentiment. Leadership is not measured by how eloquently one is defended by elite institutions, but by whether the people doing the work believe in the direction of the company. Right now, that belief is conspicuously absent…
Hat Tip: One Mile at a Time
really does seem like a paid AA piece — a pretty poorly done one at that
Reminds me of H L Mencken’s classic quote: “It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron, run through a university and decorated with a PhD, will thereby cease to be a moron.”
you did a pretty good job in your detailed analysis other than about AA’s 330 and 767 fleet retirements. AA just got past cancelling a huge number of routes out of LAX, it doesn’t make money flying the Pacific or Atlantic, and had already pinned its hopes for growing the Atlantic on the 321XLR. AA didn’t ground airplanes because it had routes it could profitably fly but because there were so many strategic failures that they have underperformed DL and UA in major competitive markets including NYC and LAX with DL and UA in Chicago.
as for the “evangelist” you mention, he probably has owned stock in other airlines and, in fact, has disclosed that he has owned stock other than DAL in his financial writings; when someone writes for a publication that requires financial disclosure, you find out about what they own relative to that article but not about their entire portfolio.
It is very possible – and in fact THE FACT – that someone can have a financial ownership in an industry – or not – and still be able to call balls and strikes.
You manage to accurately note the issues which I have noted w/ the claims each side makes and yet you don’t have airline stock ownership.
and LUV has been the stock to own among airlines in the past year, just as UAL was for a period when UA starting improving due to its new strategies.
AAL simply has not put forth strategies to turn itself around while UAL did and its stock was rewarded for about a year while LUV is doing that now.
It is also fair to note that neither UAL or LUV are worth near as much as DAL is and, despite their improvement, UAL and LUV have not closed the earnings or market cap gap with DAL.
It doesn’t take stock ownership to see those relationships and to point them out as well as noting the reasons strategy and financial performance is all correlated.
“It is very possible – and in fact THE FACT – that someone can have a financial ownership in an industry – or not – and still be able to call balls and strikes.”
Look at you pretending to be a neutral umpire given your well-known bias for anything and everything DAL no matter how many times you’re wrong. 😉
It would be one thing if you EVER admitted when you’ve been proven 100% wrong, but you are unable to do that. You simply try to misdirect and pretend the conversation was always about a different topic.
Portions of this were clearly written by AA or Isom. No wonder people no longer trust academia!
If I wrote something like that Fortune piece my kids would justifiably and permanently take away my car keys.
Or at least I hope they would.
The analysis only collapses for those who are filled with irrational hate and who want to see American Airlines liquidated. There are elements of truth on both sides. but many people simply criticize just to criticize. Maybe robotically bashing American has become the politically correct thing to do among points and miles bloggers.
What a pathetic contention. “The analysis only collapses for those who are filled with irrational hate and who want to see American Airlines liquidated.” Perfect example of attacking the criticism not the criticism.
@DesertGhost if anything, AAdvantage is American’s only bright spot. It is by far my most used points currency and has gotten me out of many jams (often being about to book last-minute trips at a fraction of the cash price). So I’m rooting for American to succeed but it’s simply not. It can but continue at its current pace while it’s supposed peers run circles around it in profitability and customer satisfaction.
“You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand –
Meanwhile, it is a stylish photo of the veteran AA B777-223ER jetliner, which is 24.8 years old and still in active service…
Those who are good at doing things do them Those who cannot do well in the real world teach at “higher education” institutions.
lol Yale. I couldn’t make it more than halfway through this guy’s piece
The comic Jim Breuer is currently about a week into a series of YouTube posts regarding an alleged recent experience with American Airlines he and his wife had as passengers on American. He is documenting his attempts to get resolution to the issues he claims to have encountered. Breuer has over a half a million YouTube followers, and is a frequent guest on The Joe Rogan podcast, which reaches tens of millions of listeners. AA in the news for the wrong reasons. As a shareholder I am concerned.