American Airlines cuts outlook, chief commercial officer says he's leaving
On Tuesday, he lowered his sales outlook. The company has also let go of its chief commercial officer Vasu Raja. He will leave his post next month.
American Airlines said it expected unit revenue to fall 6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, down from an earlier forecast of a decline of more than 3 percent. The carrier also lowered its adjusted earnings estimate for the period to an expected range of $1 to $1.15 per share, down from a previous range of $1.15 to $1.45 per share.
The airline has outperformed competitors. Delta
And United Airlines
Financial performance in recent months. United Airlines later on Tuesday reiterated its expectation of second-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.75 to $4.25 per share.
Executives from both carriers will appear at the Bernstein Conference Wednesday morning. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom plans to discuss plans to modify the carrier's ticketing strategy to drive bookings on its own platforms rather than through third-party channels and agencies.
When asked during an April earnings call whether American Airlines was getting pushback from corporate customers while rivals reported strong growth in business travel, Isom acknowledged that the carrier may have to make system changes. are
"Look, we have some fine tuning," Isom said during the April call. "There's no doubt that the goal here is to ... retain all the cost savings and then also make sure that we maximize revenue generation. As we look at the first quarter, that It is quite possible that our competitors have had some advantage because of some of the ... changes we have made."
Raja, just over two years in his role as chief commercial officer, was recently on leave, and a carrier spokesman said last week that he was not leaving the company. That changed after internal discussions over the past few days, according to a person familiar with the matter.
He previously served as chief revenue officer and headed American Airlines' network and alliances departments.
Raja did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
