American Airlines and US Airways seem an unlikely couple, even to the man who took over the combined company after they completed their merger Monday.
Doug Parker says, however, that American’s buttoned-down, corporate culture will be the perfect complement to his scrappy US Airways, where “we sometimes fire before we’re ready.”
Q: Do you see a gap widening between people in first- or business-class and leisure travelers in the back of the plane?
A: No, I don't necessarily. You described it as the front versus the back, and the reality is all the seats in coach are not the same, and customers prefer certain ones over others and are willing to pay more either through loyalty or just paying more for a ticket in order to get a better seat in the coach cabin. I don't see a gap first versus coach as being a major change going forward.
Q: What are your biggest challenges in making this merger work?
A: It's two complex organizations that need to be melded into one over time. That's the biggest challenge by far. It's not easy, but we have people that have done it before — both airlines have been through a merger in the semi-recent past. We have consultants on board who've done this with other carriers, so we'll learn from what we've seen at others as well as what we've seen ourselves.
Q: Were Justice Department officials right when they said the merger would cause prices to rise?
A: Airline prices are like prices in other businesses — they track with supply and demand, and we're not reducing any of the supply. Prices may change because demand changes, or they could change for any number of factors like costs going up, but this merger shouldn't have an impact on prices one way or another because we're not taking out any seats.
Q: You said recently that US Airways has more of a bias for action than American. What did you mean?
A: The culture of American is probably a little more buttoned down than the US Airways culture, but that has some real benefits. The US Airways culture is, I think, a little more open and does have a little more bias for action. That also means we sometimes fire before we're ready.
Q: Finally, why do people love to hate the airlines?
A: I don't know. It's something we need to get past. It affects the people that work at the airlines. We have people out there every day who do just amazing things to help get people from Point A to Point B. It's a noble job. It drives commerce, it gets people to go see their loved ones, it gets people to be able to see the world.
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