Specialist
Former VP at American Airlines
Agenda
- Key headwinds and tailwinds affecting American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL)
- Key markets and demand trends, touching on business and international recovery expectations
- Opportunities from American Airlines’ partnerships with airlines such as IndiGo (NSE: INDIGO) and Gol (BVMF: GOLL4)
- Q3 2021 capacity issues and Q4 outlook, focusing on Boeing (NYSE: BA) 787 delays
Questions
1.
What are the key headwinds and tailwinds affecting American Airlines today?
2.
How have the competitive dynamics shifted between major carriers and LCCs [low-cost carriers] over the last 1.5 years, since the pandemic began?
3.
When do you expect domestic business travel to fully recover to 2019 rates, given you mentioned domestic business revenue recovered to about 50% of 2019 levels in Q3 2021? What portion might be permanently lost?
4.
What portion of the 1-2-day business travel that you mentioned might be permanently lost?
5.
What signposts can we monitor that would indicate stronger or weaker business travel recovery?
6.
How have booking patterns changed over the last 1.5 years? Are there any notable differences vs pre pandemic?
7.
What’s your assessment of the recent announcement around American Airlines reducing international flights due to the Boeing 787 delays? Long haul was always the laggard in terms of recovery.
8.
Is there anything else we should be thinking about around the impact of the 787 delays? From what you just said, it seems it will have a fairly new footprint within the international market compared to 2019.
9.
American Airlines touts it has the youngest fleet of network airlines after retiring many of its older aircraft during coronavirus, and the majority of its aircraft are now less than 10 years old. Obviously, this helps with efficiency and reduced maintenance. What other opportunities does this younger fleet bring to the company?
10.
How should we be thinking about the labour situation for airlines, perhaps breaking it down between pilots and maintenance staff? How significant an issue does labour remain for airlines and American Airlines specifically?
11.
When would you expect a tightness in labour to begin to hinder American Airlines’ capacity goals?
12.
American Airlines has a new partnership with IndiGo, India’s leading airline, in addition to JetSmart and Gol in Brazil. What opportunities might these partnerships bring to the company?
13.
Is there anything you’d like to add around the Northeast Alliance? I believe the trial is planned for September 2022. Do you expect regulators to uphold the alliance or force a break-up? Could you highlight any historical examples?
14.
On 07 December 2021, American Airlines’ CEO, Doug Parker, announced his planned retirement and that President Robert Isom will take his place. What is priority number one for the new CEO? Do you expect any major strategy changes under the new CEO?
15.
What are your 2022 expectations for domestic and international travel?
16.
Do you think the debt burden will inhibit American Airlines’ ability to grow?
