American Airlines named Oneworld airline alliance CEO Nathaniel Pieper as its new chief commercial officer, effective Nov. 3.
Nathaniel Pieper
Pieper has been Oneworld CEO since April 2024. Prior, he held executive positions at Alaska Air Group, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. While at Alaska Airlines, he led the carrier's entry into Oneworld and built its commercial partnership with American.
Former chief commercial officer Vasu Raja left the company in June 2024 after American decided to reverse course on the carrier's direct and New Distribution Capability sales strategy, which alienated travel agencies and corporate customers.
Vice chairman and chief strategy officer Steve Johnson had stepped in to oversee the commercial organization and was able to "quickly stabilize and reenergize this part of our business," American CEO Robert Isom said Oct. 23 during the airline's Q3 earnings call.
Johnson and his team have "strengthened our commercial position, and we're now in a great spot to make a transition," Isom added. Johnson will return to his prior role when Pieper joins the company.
American continues to build out its sales team and is "aggressively using our loyalty program to win back customers," Isom said. "In the third quarter, we grew our corporate revenue by 14% year over year."
He reiterated the carrier's expectation to have fully recovered by year's end the revenue share that "was lost by our prior sales and distribution strategy," but added that "we're not all the way there. We have not only some share left to catch up as we exit the year, but we're not going to stop on that front." The carrier plans to shift its focus to "growing our share beyond those historical levels."
Source: Business Travel News