The CEO of American Airlines, the largest airline in the world (measured in fleet size), has indicated that the carrier still has the capacity to grow much larger. Robert Isom confirmed that the airline had the assets necessary for such growth at the Cowen Global Transportation & Sustainable Mobility Conference on Wednesday (September 7).
Currently, American Airlines is still struggling with the shortage of pilots that forced it to ground 150 aircraft earlier this year. “We’d like to get the regional fleet back up as much as we can. Our goal is to get those flying as soon as we can,” said Isom.
He confirmed that the airline had already recruited about 20 000 new employees so far this year, but said it still had approximately 5 000 fewer workers than it did at this time in 2019, Simple Flying reports.
As a result, the airline continues to cut flights from its schedule, with upcoming flights for November already set to be reduced by 16%.
The airline currently owns 920 aircraft, including 303 Boeing 737-800s and 218 Airbus A321s.
More than 161 million passengers flew with American Airlines in 2021. Pre-pandemic, this peaked at over 200 million.
