Why American Airlines’ Pilots Union Is Calling For A New CEO—Even As He Makes Changes It Wanted

The head of the American Airlines pilot union is putting CEO Robert Isom on blast calling for new leadership. “The pool of talent to lead airlines seems to be relatively small,” said Capt. Nick Silva, an American pilot who serves as president of the Allied Pilots Association. “It’s just the question of is there somebody out there who can turn the ship around faster? We have hope that there’s somebody out there who sees the potential here, who sees what we see, and is able to come in.” American Airlines lags United and Delta in financial performance. Change at an airline takes years because of the capital investment, complications working with airports and unions, and regulatory environment. They’ve made real strides, but there’s a lag before customers realize it enough to matter in margin. American is a high cost carrier. They have high labor costs. They need to earn a revenue premium to make money, and they’ve only really been focused on investing in their product to do this over the past 18 – 21 months. For many years before this, they believed they had a cost problem rather than a revenue problem. So like pilot union head Silva, I argued for years that American should have shifted focus. “They’re really trying to focus on the customer,” said Silva. “You know, we wish it would happen several years ago, right? As opposed to doing nothing, yes, it’s good news.” This all matters to the pilots union because, Lower profits mean less profit sharing for pilots (and other employee groups) It also makes it harder to extract more in a new contract And the reason it matters that this didn’t start years ago is whether American leadership is given the runway to continue making investments, especially in the face of high oil prices and if that takes a toll on the economy. Already markets are expecting an increase in interest rates. Energy prices and interest rates could dampen data center construction which is one of the bright spots in the broader environment. If airline revenue suffers with an economic downturn, and there’s less premium revenue to earn in the short term, investors might pressure American to scale back – ultimately scuttling its turnaround. I’m excited to see American embracing significant changes, realizing that it has a revenue problem rather than a cost problem. They have a long way to go to reach their goal of becoming the premier U.S. global airline, and I’m hopeful they’re given enough room to try. However, it’s worth understanding why the pilots union is (1) out criticizing management, and (2) doing it now – precisely as management is largely doing the things that the union would have them doing (by Silva’s own admission). They’ve just opened contract negotiations with the airline early. They are looking to blame management for poor financial performance, to shift the narrative from poor performance means the airline can’t afford to invest more in a new contract to one that blames management for that poor performance. Indeed, the union’s opener in contract talks calls for a seat on the board (like pilots at Delta and United have). They’re framing themselves as the answer to mismanagement at the airline – that contract talks can solve for American’s financial problems, rather than being forestalled by them. In addition, pilot leadership needs to take a performatively strong stance against management because of the union’s own internal politics. The independent Allied Pilots Association has been in discussion with the larger Air Line Pilots Association over a merger. That politics toppled the last union President, who was removed by its board in October 2024. APA created a merger negotiating committee in 2025 to work on ALPA integration. However, the committee said in February that it saw no path to a deal. The board directed it to reengage with ALPA in May. Polling shows support for a merger with ALPA falling in nine of ten crew domiciles. Only Phoenix was above 49% support. But active members are more pro-merger than less active ones. And in June, they got approval to change the requirement for a merger from a majority of all eligible pilots to a majority of those pilots who cast votes on the question. That lowers the burden for ratifying an agreement to join ALPA. Pilots union criticism of Robert Isom is motivated by both internal union politics and the start of new contract negotiations. Topics on this page