The lineup of US major airline CEOs will look quite different from spring 2022, by which time three big industry names will have retired. Brad Tilden at Alaska Airlines, Gary Kelly at Southwest Airlines and Doug Parker at American Airlines each elected to place the leadership of their much-loved companies in other hands. Tilden handed the baton to Ben Minicucci in March 2021; Kelly will similarly hand over to Bob Jordan at the end of February; and Parker will pass company leadership to Robert Isom at the end of March (see pg.48). All the successors are eminently capable and expert (and male, it should be noted; some things in this industry do not change). Minicucci has already steered Alaska back to profit ($194 million in the 2021 third quarter) and exercised and added options for more Boeing 737 MAX 9s. Throughout their careers, Kelly, Parker and Tilden shared some common traits. All initiated and oversaw major mergers. Kelly created the largest US domestic passenger carrier-and took Southwest into international territory-with the acquisition of AirTran Airways. Tilden battled against JetBlue to acquire west coast carrier Virgin America. These were significant developments for Southwest and Alaska. But the biggest industry shifts were accomplished by Parker, who first integrated America West with US Airways and then merged US Airways with American. In both cases, the smaller airline acquired the much larger carrier, which in both instances were also in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. And in both cases, the name stayed with the larger carrier, hence America West became US Airways became American Airlines.
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