Originally Posted by
Skyvector
There are only two things we know for certain. #1, Doug Parker-AA CEO- doesn't want just one regional providing 95%+ of the feed like it was in the old Eagle days.
#2, he doesn't want so many different regionals operating on behalf of AA. He has said those words himself at town hall meetings. The surge in outsourcing between 2013-2015 was the doing of one Scott Kirby. Partly out of his own stupitiidy...partly because he hated Envoy.
But Kirby is out, and in his place we have Robert Isom. The new philosophy is in line with Parker's: less outsourced feed and more in house flying. Putting it all together, we can infer that we will continue to see at least two if not three wholly owned Regionals doing the bulk of AA flying. Then two maybe three outsourced airlines mopping up the left overs. It's a process that has been in motion since Kirby's ejection.
Spot on. Scott Kirby made things personal when we turned them down on contractual concessions and made it his personal vendetta to shrink Envoy into an oblivion. He hated Envoy. And here we are now with 10 regional airlines doing feed for AA. However, we will see feed slowly consolidated over the next few years. AWAC is obviously the first carrier that will cease to operate for AA. TSA, XJT and Compass will more than likely be the next carriers. I think the endgame will be the WOs doing the majority of feed with a contract carrier or two picking up the remaining slack.