MUSINGS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES - EVEN AA (May 2023)

Finally, the #PGAChampionship is about to get underway after a nearly 2-hour frost delay this morning. It is just cold in Rochester, NY at the venerable Oak Hill Country Club. And it is supposed to be wet on the weekend as well.

About to tee off is #BenGriffin. First year on tour and playing in his first major. My stepson Sam and I were paired with Ben at a pro-am two years ago. He had walked away from playing golf for a living for a while. But when we played with him, he had just gotten a big sponsor that would allow him to just play golf and not worry about the next meal.

This year, Ben has won more than $1.6 million so far; he ranks 58th in the FEDX cup; and is inside the top 100 in the world golf rankings. I knew that there was something special about this kid when we played with him. Watching him take full advantage of playing opportunities has been fun. Hope to see Ben playing on the weekend.

#AMERICANAIRLINES

I do not write much about American. I was never a fan of the Parker years. AA tried to buy labor peace by writing checks and making promises. The contracts badly needed a court-assisted rinse. That never happened because if the Parker-led team was going to pull off one of the great corporate heists in airline history, they would need to curry favor with the unions. And they did. For a while.

Because AA was last to file, the timing on achieving that needed rinse was not good as the network carriers before them had begun to negotiate increases and improvements in their first post-bankruptcy collective bargaining agreements. The concessionary agreements achieved in court by DL and UA were of a magnitude never imagined and the productivity gains were of significance.

AA never got to the lower base, but they added to the higher base by matching DL and UA anyway. That pattern bargaining thing! It was right that the industry finally began to acknowledge the importance of their workforces. DL and UA had a meaningful first mover cost advantage that AA did not.

Parker and his team poured a lot of Kool Aid down the throats of observers and media. You know - of course the promised synergies would be achieved. Labor peace would break out. The industry would never lose money again (AA too). Capacity discipline floated a lot of boats. But that damn Kool Aid they served was really good. I never took a sip.

TODAY'S AMERICAN

Don't know about you, but for me there is something going on at AA after #RobertIsom took the reins. AA was aggressive through the Pandemic. They needed to be as it would have been expensive to park all those new airplanes. They prioritized their network focus. Post-COVID, they have a product that plays to both the business and leisure buckets - and the mix too.

Leadership at DL has been unmatched. Beginning with Munoz - badly needed - and now with Kirby, a new and better UA has been built. Thinking a better AA is being built as well. No Kool Aid, just a different vibe.