American Airlines CEO On The Ropes As Flight Attendants Plan Thursday Protest—Just As The Airline Starts To Get Better

American Airlines flight attendants will picket outside headquarters on Thursday. They aren’t demanding a new contract. They already got an industry-leading one 18 months ago. Instead they’re picketing to demand ‘accountability’ and for the CEO to go.

On Monday the union’s board unanimously called for CEO Robert Isom’s removal. As one observer noted, they see the train headed in that direction and they want to take credit for the trip.

• The protest will be held Thursday, February 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The effort is for show – it’s worth 90 minutes of their time.
• They warn flight attendants not to park in the airline’s garages when coming to protest (“Parking available on the opposite side of Trinity Blvd, across from the entrance to Skyview 8”).
• Anyone is welcome, you don’t have to be a flight attendant or even an employee and while they prefer employees in uniform (or in union t-shirts) this is not required. I still have my APFA ‘W.A.R.’ shirt from when they wanted to strike in 2024!

  All Employee Workgroups and Supporters are Welcome to Join the Protest! … Attire: Uniforms/ Union t-shirts preferred but not required.

The union argues that American “is falling dangerously behind its competitors, and the current leadership has failed to course-correct.”

• American has fallen behind competitors. Delta and United are earning strong margins and delivering billions in profits while American is breaking even. Fundamentally the got the big things wrong. They loaded up on debt to fund stock buybacks, retired planes that would have carried passengers where they wanted to go, and doubled down on a product meant to compete against ultra-low cost carriers just when passengers began spending more for better experiences. That was largely on Doug Parker, although CEO Robert Isom came out of a ‘don’t spend any more you don’t have to’ mold from Northwest Airlines.
• But they have begun to course correct. It’s just that it (1) takes time to fix 13 years of mismanagement, (2) it takes capital expenditures that their own finance operation will still be gnashing teeth over, and (3) it takes leadership that the CEO hasn’t yet shown – articulating a bold vision for what the future at American Airlines looks like, and selling that retail to employees across the system as well as explaining it to customers and investors.

When flight attendants were picketing for a better contract, the airline offered them a free bowl of chili to skip the protest. I wonder if they have anything up their sleeve this time?

We actually saw an inkling of American’s fighting spirit and articulation of a plan to compete with United, and deliver a product customers are willing to fly that’ll convince them to take the airline’s Citibank credit card, at the employee ‘State of the Airline’ meeting following the carrier’s earnings call two weeks ago. However we saw it from the Chief Commercial Officer – not yet from the CEO.

Nonetheless, flight attendants want to see change – to flex their muscles, and because under their recent industry-leading deal they won the same profit sharing terms that non-union Delta flight attendants have… but without profits, Delta cabin crew are set to receive 8 weeks of pay this week, while many American flight attendants will receive about $150.

On Thursday, February 12, 2026, please join your ten Base Presidents and four National Officers at a protest outside of American’s Headquarters, Skyview 8, to demand accountability, improved operational support, and leadership change at American Airlines.

This airline is headed down a path that puts our careers at risk. Now is the time for Flight Attendants to stand together and show up in protest. American Airlines needs real accountability, decisive action, and leadership that will put this airline back on a competitive path.

Flight attendants are right to be concerned, because their fortunes are closely tied to those of their employer. American is at no risk of going out of business, or shrinking such that current flight attendants should fear for their jobs. But they should be earning more!

And the way to do that is for management to commit to a strategy that generates revenue needed to both cover the airline’s high costs (including costly labor deals) and earn more than their cost of capital. That includes showing flight attendants and other front line employees that their service delivery matters to convincing customers that they’re willing to choose American Airlines over competitors, pay more to fly American than competitors, and buy up to American’s premium products because the experience is worth what they charge.

Strong leadership that’s focused on revenue generation, profit and profit sharing is also leadership that demands accountability from itself and from the rest of the company’s employees. Hopefully APFA union leadership understands that’s the logical conclusion of their protest at corporate headquarters this week.

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