When flight attendants began posting photos of crew members sleeping on airport floors, what had been simmering inside American Airlines boiled over.
Unions representing pilots and flight attendants have moved from private complaint to public confrontation, demanding answers from the airline’s board and putting fresh pressure on CEO Robert Isom. The mood is less about a single bad week and more about a year — even a decade — of strategic missteps that employees say left the carrier exposed when storms and other stressors hit.
A letter to the board, and then another
This week the Allied Pilots Association, representing roughly 16,000 American pilots, formally wrote to the airline’s board asking to present its concerns in person. The letter lays out a withering assessment: "Our airline is on an underperforming path and has failed to define an identity or a strategy to correct course." It stops short of an explicit call to oust the CEO, but it signals lost confidence and a demand for "decisive action." (Pilots’ leaders are expected to consider a vote of no confidence, according to reporting from other outlets.)
That demand was echoed — more bluntly — by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. A base-level memo circulated by APFA’s Chicago O’Hare president labeled recent events "a dereliction of duty," accused management of normalizing inhumane treatment and urged shareholders to intervene. One line captured the tone: "Sleeping on floors is NOT normal. Shame on you."
Both unions point to a pattern: routine operational failures, slow storm recovery, and what they describe as an absence of credible, measurable progress from senior management.
The numbers everyone can see
Financial pain sharpens the dispute. American reported roughly $111 million in profit last year — a sliver compared with peers. Delta earned about $5 billion and United more than $3 billion during the same period, even though the carriers flew similar capacity in 2025. For rank-and-file employees, which share in profit pools, those gaps translate to much smaller profit-sharing paydays.
Investors have noticed too. American’s stock has been roughly flat in 2026 while some peers climbed; Southwest’s turnaround narrative has sent its shares notably higher this year. The board now has to reconcile a difficult operational reality with a publicly announced turnaround plan led by Isom.
The operational meltdown that lit the fuse
Late January’s winter storms were the proximate cause. Thousands of cancellations across the industry left crews stranded, and American’s recovery lagged competitors in several hubs. Union leaders describe long hold times on crew support lines, exhausted staff sleeping in terminals and a brittle system that repeatedly buckles under stress.
Isom, who became CEO in 2022, has acknowledged the severity of the storm disruptions and has told employees that 2026 "can’t just feel different. It has to be different." He’s pitched a transformation built around cleaner customer service, better network and revenue management, and a heavier push into premium cabins that generate higher yields.
Strategy, optics and a fight for hubs
American’s plan is recognizable: expand premium seats, renovate cabins and lounges, and chase higher-yield travellers. The carrier is revamping wide-body business cabins, fitting some narrow-bodies with three classes and polishing food-and-beverage offerings in premium cabins.
But critics — inside and outside the airline — argue strategy alone won’t flip results overnight. Analysts point to the long arc Delta followed to cultivate a premium image and warn that monetizing premium offerings is operationally and culturally difficult.
At the same time American tries to remake itself, a turf battle is playing out in Chicago O’Hare. United is ramping capacity there and has used pointed marketing and gate moves to press its advantage, heightening the stakes in a market Deutsche Bank estimates is worth about $10 billion in revenue for United and more than $5 billion for American.
Why the board matters now
A union letter to the board shifts the conversation from internal gripe to governance. Directors are fiduciaries for shareholders; they oversee strategy and the CEO. For members of the APA and APFA, the ask is simple: grant them an audience, hear their evidence, and demonstrate accountability.
What happens next is unclear. A formal vote of no confidence from employees won’t directly remove a CEO, but it amplifies reputational pressure and can accelerate board-level reviews. Rumors have swirled about management reshuffles and contingency plans; some insiders say a change at the top is possible if the board decides the current track isn’t closing the gap to peers.
Isom has emphasized optimism about bookings and outlined an ambition to shift more revenue toward higher-margin premium travel. But optimism and a slide deck won’t mollify crews who felt abandoned during disruptions, nor will they satisfy investors wanting concrete, measurable progress.
The choice facing American’s leadership is stark: accelerate visible, structural fixes that shore up day-to-day operations and pilot confidence — or risk ceding ground to rivals while morale and shareholder patience erode. The winter storm may have been the trigger, but the complaint is about a longer, deeper frustration. The board now has to decide whether that frustration is an operational hiccup or a signal for bigger change.