Parker Assumes AWA Command

America West Holdings, parent of America West Airlines, on Saturday got a new leader when W. Douglas Parker added to his existing presidential duties and officially took the CEO and chairman reins from William Franke.

Parker for the past 16 years has been in management and executive positions at various major carriers. He joined Phoenix-based America West in 1995 and since has held a number of strategic positions covering the gamut of airline management, including finance, scheduling, planning, revenue management, sales, legal affairs, labor relations, information technology and labor relations.

He has been cited as a main driver behind the carrier's expansion, and his ascension to the top followed a succession plan laid out earlier in the year.

"Doug, for more than two years, has been intimately involved in the key decisions at America West," said Franke. "His success in leading the turnaround of the airline's operations is particularly noteworthy."

That turnaround began in May 2000 when Parker was elevated to president. At that time, maintenance and customer service problems kept the carrier at or near the bottom of the U.S. Department of Transportation's rankings for on-time performance, baggage handling, denied boarding and customer complaints. A year later, in the most recent DOT report, all figures dramatically had improved, and included top three scores in two of the four categories.

Continued operational improvements, however, have not kept America West Airlines profitable—it reported a net loss in excess of $55 million in the first half of the year—and Parker will have to find ways to eliminate some of the red ink scrawled across the airline industry.

However, in a CNBC television interview last week Parker said the carrier's internal planning assumes that business travel will not rebound for six months to a year.

Franke had been at the helm of America West Airlines since 1993 and steered the carrier out of bankruptcy. During his tenure, AWA, currently the eighth largest U.S. carrier, grew its fleet by 70 percent, significantly expanded its Phoenix hub and increased revenues more than 40 percent, to $2.3 billion.

Franke left the airline to pursue other business interests.