2024 ATW Lifetime Achievement Recipient: Doug Parker

Doug Parker’s long and influential career in airline management began in 1986 when he joined American Airlines as a financial analyst at a time when Bob Crandall was CEO. Parker then moved to Northwest Airlines before joining Phoenix-based America West as CFO, and eventually CEO. Parker oversaw the merger of America West with US Airways, and then the merger of US Airways and American, creating the world’s biggest airline.

Parker retired as CEO at American in March 2022 and as chairman in April 2023 after more than 35 years in the airline industry, during which time he was the only CEO to lead a US airline through both the 9/11 attacks and the COVID pandemic. During the latter crisis, he was instrumental in the industry-wide campaign to persuade politicians to help support the US airline industry via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

A transforming leader who is also a former IATA board of governors’ chair, Parker now runs a nonprofit with his wife, Gwen, called Breaking Down Barriers, which aims to open pilot career paths to a more diverse candidate base.

In a Window Seat podcast with ATW editor-in-chief Karen Walker, Parker talked about his career and thoughts on the industry. Here are extracts from that interview:

What kept you motivated through all of the industry crises you worked through? The motivation was easy—it was the team. I learned shortly after 9/11 how important it was that we keep the company running, or else we were going to have these hardworking people that work for us looking for work. And so it was incumbent upon management to make sure that we had a viable going concern for them.

The motivation was always: How do we get people to safe harbor? And that’s what we were trying to do. That’s why we did those mergers. We had airlines that were going to be strategically impaired versus what else was going on in the industry in each case. And so we looked for ways to get our team to safe harbor. I’m happy we did it. There were a lot of speed bumps on the way, but that was the fun part. When the last one came, COVID, the most severe of them all, we were prepared.

Who were the biggest influences on you in those early days? You pick up things along the way from all sorts of people. The biggest influence, though, for me in the industry was somebody I never worked for or with, [Southwest Airlines founder] Herb Kelleher. I got to know Herb really well, thankfully, through things like A4A and other industry initiatives. I’d just follow him around and try and soak up everything I could. He was everything everybody said he was and more. I think he’s by far the most influential and best leader our industry’s had. He transformed a business—he built a culture that is like none other.

What I found most fascinating about Herb was what an amazing listener he was. Whenever you were with Herb, it was your conversation. It wasn’t fake. This is what I learned. He was really learning from people.

Talk about some of the broader roles that you had across the industry, and particularly on the governors’ board of IATA at A4A. How important do you see those sorts of association roles? They’re incredibly important. The fact of the matter is, in our business, we could work really hard at American to try and figure out ways to improve our profit margins, for example, one half of 1%. That’s a huge move in a $40 billion company. But if we could get the industry well and lift all ships, that had much more value for our team and our shareholders.

I was the only one that was on A4A board for both 9/11 and for COVID. There were people who had been in the industry like [Southwest Airlines’] Gary Kelly, of course, but I was the only one who had been in that room in both cases. Making sure the industry is healthy generally is a lot better for all airlines than each of us trying to figure out how to drive another half percent of margin out of our own.

Do you think lawmakers, particularly in the US, understand how hard it is to run an airline and that you want to serve your customers? That’s a good question. The answer is yes, I think they do. When you talk to them one on one, they understand. We’re not in the business of trying to do anything but make our customers happy, and it’s complicated. But they also have jobs to do. They represent their constituents. And in some sense, it’s sometimes populist to go beat on airlines . . . It’s not easy to make sure you’re moving millions of passengers every day and getting there on time, flying through weather, and making sure everyone’s safe. There are going to be some things that go wrong.

Nonetheless, there’s still huge pressure all the time for legislation. [Former US Sen.] John McCain told me a long time ago, “Look, if you guys don’t fix this, we will, and we’re not very good at it.”

You and your wife Gwen have started a nonprofit called Breaking Down Barriers. Why is that important to you? The barrier we’re trying to break down is the barrier that makes it hard for some of the best people in the United States to become airline pilots. What I noticed was that everyone didn’t have the same opportunity, primarily because of the expense. With the [US flight hours] 1,500-hr. rule, or any rule, but certainly with that many hours, it can be up to $100,000 for an individual to get that much training. It’s well worth it because you’re paid much more than that pretty quickly, but you have to have it. The other large barrier is awareness. There are individuals that just have no idea that the opportunity exists.

So, we’ve put together this nonprofit to provide both those things. We’re trying to build awareness within lower-income communities starting in Dallas. And as we find individuals who think they might want to do this, we’re going to provide the funding for them, the entire amount of the funding, to get them to where they become airline pilots. We’re starting in Dallas, but I expect it’ll get bigger over time.

What part of your work have you most enjoyed? It really is the people. Every interaction I can think about that I enjoyed was working with the people in the industry. The best way I can sum up my career is this. I’d gotten to be CEO of America West at a relatively young age, and right after 9/11, we were fighting for a government loan that if we didn’t get it, we were going to liquidate. I’m flying back from D.C. I’ve been told that we’re not going to get the loan by the US government. I’m sitting there thinking, “Woe is me. What am I going to do? I’m 39 years old. Woe, woe, woe.” Anyway, I get up and talk to the flight attendant, and she asked me how it’s going. I said, “It’s not going that well; if they don’t give us a loan, we’re going to liquidate.” And she looks at me and says, “You can’t do that. I’m a single mom. I’m good at this job. This is what I do. My lifestyle’s around it. I’ve been doing it for 15 years. No other airline’s hiring.” And that’s when it hit me. This is my responsibility.

That was a Friday night. I called the team that night. We got together Saturday morning. We went back to the government. They sent us a note that said, “We’re not going to approve your loan at this time.” But we showed up with a new application on Monday morning. I said, “Now it’s Monday. Here’s a new application. We’re not going home.”

And from that point on, all these mergers, all the work that I did was honestly to get people to safe harbor. We did what we set out to do. Through some real crises, we got some people that started with America West around 9/11 and got them to where if they want a job, the company’s going to be there for them. And they’re still there. That’s what makes me happy.

Listen to ATW’s full podcast recording with Doug Parker here: https://bit.ly/4dnN9BO.