In the past two years, CEO Robert Isom has aggressively led American Airlines into the Woke abyss. Under his leadership, American Airlines has been committed to a strict "Woke Agenda.” A few examples of this include: when in April 2021, they attacked Texas election integrity legislation; in January 2022, they apologized for a pilot who had a "Let's Go Brandon" sticker on his luggage (even though in 2020 crew members were allowed to wear BLM pins); and even more recently, this summer when they deemed it necessary to spend money to promote only black prospective pilots in an effort to "diversify the cockpit."
Woke pandering is the corporate "Bermuda Triangle" to America's airline companies; where shareholder's profits go to disappear.
According to reports, American Airlines has canceled the most flights among major U.S. carriers with more than 19,000 cancellations. In addition to the mass of scrapped flights, nearly a million flights have been delayed so far this year industry-wide.
Isom blames the steep rise in AA's cancellations on a "decline in demand," but with so few domestic airline options, demand is actually on the rise - especially going into America's holiday travel season. Isom is past due in pondering the cause for decline in AA's airfare demand, because hypocrites avoid facing the truth.
The scapegoat that Isom is attempting to spin of "decreased demand" is clearly not a current industry standard. Au contraire, it is very specific to the crippling effects of American Airlines' Woke pandering. The consequences of Isom's failures in corporate leadership are clear: American Airlines is in a nose-dive trajectory.
AA has also slipped into the "Number 4" spot on this year's domestic airline ratings and it's easy to see why. In tandem with rising cancellation rates, AA has also begun to see its employee relationship rapidly deteriorate. AA recently tried to pacify its begrudged pilots with a 19% raise, but the pilots' union rejected this offer -- because for these pilots, money was never the primary issue.
“We cannot vote to approve a [tentative agreement] that does not adequately address the quality-of-life items of our line pilots,” union representatives said in a note to pilots before the vote, “The Company has returned a proposal that is not only subpar in these areas, but it also demonstrates a complete lack of understanding [of] how important these issues are for you.”
The clear message is that Isom is too busy focusing on fulfilling made-up, Woke criteria metrics to understand what his employees actually want and need to feel fulfilled, and well-compensated.
Even Wall Street has now turned on Isom. Woke Corporate America may claim to be in favor of Leftist ESG and DEI virtue-signaling, but as risks of recession loom Bloomberg reports that key executives are backing away from these quasi-capitalist ventures.
This is precisely why Wall Street has begun to buy puts in AA stock at a rate 28% higher than normal. Such an action signals one thing: Wall Street is anticipating a major decrease in AA stock's value. This news came after Bank of America cut their price target on American Airlines Group from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an "underperform" rating. Wall Street has recognized what Robert Isom refuses to see:
AMERICAN AIRLINES HAS GONE WOKE, AND NOW THEY'RE GOING BROKE.