American Airlines Wants To Be “The Premier Global Airline Based In The US”

American Airlines’ most competent leader seems to have a new vision for the airline as of recently, which he’s repeating constantly. While I’m happy to see that American finally has a goal, I can’t help but think this borders on being so unrealistic as to be silly. Then again, what else is he supposed to say?! Nat Pieper has an insanely lofty vision for AmericanMy take on American’s new goal of being number oneBottom line Nat Pieper has an insanely lofty vision for American American is horribly lagging Delta and United when it comes to financials, and the situation has gotten really bad in recent years. Essentially what happened is that starting in 2017 or so, American’s management became laser focused on controlling costs, instead of focusing on the passenger experience. Delta has of course for years been pursuing a “premium” strategy, and it’s something that United started aggressively working toward around the same time. For years, American thought it had a winning strategy, and post-COVID, the airline took that to the next level, by also increasingly focusing on domestic flying rather than international flying. However, this strategy simply hasn’t worked. So in 2025, American management admitted its mistakes, and shared plans to make the airline more premium again. Initially there wasn’t much substance to this, though efforts are really starting to step up — American will install Starlink fleetwide, and also plans to introduce seat back TVs across its narrow body fleet (after just finishing a project to rip them out). I have zero faith in American CEO Robert Isom, and I think it’s time for him to go. But as of now I do have faith in American’s new Chief Commercial Officer, Nat Pieper. He’s an outsider who comes from Delta, Alaska, oneworld, etc., and he clearly gets the gravity of the situation. Now, huge respect to him, but I wouldn’t want to be in his position, trying to fix American, since it sort of seems like an impossible situation to be in: American already has the most debt of any US carrier, and that’s before actually investing in improving the passenger experience It takes years for airlines to see results from product investments, given the pace at which they happen, and the slow rate at which consumer sentiment changes American’s goal is to increasingly compete in competitive markets, and that’s going to be money losing; airlines make money in their fortress hubs, not in markets where they’re taking on a better positioned competitor that doesn’t want to give up any market share But Pieper does have a vision he’s now consistently espousing — he wants American to be “the premier global airline based in the US.” I first saw reference to him mentioning this several weeks back, and I wasn’t initially sure if it was a one-off statement, or if this is the big new talking point. Clearly it’s the latter. Pieper has acknowledged that the goal is a distant one, and has also repeatedly described it as the airline’s “directional north star.” He has also often mentioned this in the context of the immediate work also being focused on improving American’s position in markets like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. American wants to be “the premier global airline based in the US” My take on American’s new goal of being number one I’m not going to be sarcastic and rib Pieper here, because I respect him, and I understand what he’s trying to go for here. But goodness, do I have a lot of thoughts on this. First, let’s actually analyze the statement, of wanting American to be “the premier global airline based in the US.” Okay, so American is already an airline, so they got that goal checked off. American is also based in the US, so they are already excelling there. We’re halfway to completing our goal! Wait, but American wants to be “the premier” airline in the US? In other words, American doesn’t just want to catch up with Delta and United, but wants to overtake them? And not only that, but it wants to be the premier “global” airline, as in, it wants to compete globally with United? I’m of two minds here. On the one hand, what is Pieper supposed to say? “Our goal is to not suck,” or “our goal is to make people forget the past decade happened?” That’s not exactly inspiring to employees. But also, this goal is so unrealistic as to just be silly. You might as well just make the goal for American to have a higher market cap than SpaceX! Why not go for something more realistic? Why can’t it be something like “our goal is to be an airline our customers want to fly and that our employees are proud of?” And that actually brings me to another point. The hyperbole among executives at the “big three” US carriers has gotten out of hand. For a while, it was all about “we want to be premium,” whatever that means, exactly. But as of late, you’ll hear executives at the US carriers all claim they want to be the number one airline in the US. I’d pose the simple question of why they feel the need to benchmark themselves in that way? Why do they need to be “better” than competitors by some vague, subjective metric? Why can’t they just want to offer a great experience? The simple reality is that there’s never going to be one “best” airline. United isn’t trying to be the world’s best airline if you’re based in Atlanta or Minneapolis, Delta isn’t trying to be the world’s best airline if you’re based on Denver or Houston, and American isn’t trying to be the world’s best airline if you’re based in… not El Paso or Tucson (okay, I’m kidding). The United States is a big country with a lot of travel demand, and all kinds of markets, and it’s fine for different airlines to be “best” in different areas. Among airline CEOs, United’s Scott Kirby is probably the most insistent on creating the best airline in the US, but in an Air Koryo kind of way, through consolidation of two of the “big three” carriers. And let’s be clear, that kind of a “premier” airline would not be good for the general public. Then again, Kirby already claims that United is already “the best airline in the history of aviation.” Airline executives love to set unrealistic goals Bottom line American Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper is a bright guy, and he’s our best bet at a turnaround for the airline. I don’t envy his position, because a turnaround requires investing many billions over many years, and is unlikely to produce meaningful results for an extended period of time. His new goal is for American to be “the premier global airline based in the US.” I appreciate the concept of wanting to positively inspire employees, but this just strikes me as a goal that’s both completely unrealistic, and also silly. The US shouldn’t have one “premier” global airline, since we’re a large country with a lot of different airline hubs. And unfortunately if there were to be a “premier” global airline based in the US, I think odds of it being American are very close to zero, at least in the next decade or two. But I also get it. Airline executives say silly things to motivate employees, and you’ve gotta do something to inspire people. What do you make of the new goal of American becoming “the premier global airline based in the US?”