How American's New Organizational Structure Impacts Corporate Sales
- Sales has moved to under the revenue umbrella to get revenue initiatives to market more quickly.
- SVP of global sales and distribution Alison Taylor now reports to SVP of revenue Don Casey.
- Taylor also becomes part of a new leadership team that meets regularly with president Robert Isom.
American Airlines is reorganizing its commercial and operations structure, including moving its global sales team directly under the carrier's revenue umbrella.
SVP of customer experience Kerry Philipovitch announced Thursday she would retire at the end of the year. In light of her coming departure, American has aligned its commercial and operational teams under four divisions—revenue, operations, network strategy and customer experience—all reporting to American Airlines president Robert Isom.
SVP of global sales and distribution Alison Taylor now reports to SVP of revenue and head of the revenue division Don Casey. The move positions Taylor alongside VP of revenue management Jim Fox and will "facilitate improved long-term customer partnerships and agility in responding to the ever-changing market needs of American's customers," according to the carrier.
American said the structure also will enable it to get revenue initiatives to market more quickly, such as recent work around New Distribution Capability like its testing of corporate bundles with travel management partners.
Since former SVP for network, planning, alliances and sales Andrew Nocella left American to join United in 2017, Taylor had reported to SVP of customer experience Kurt Stache. Stache now leads the customer experience division, which includes flight service, customer care, global marketing, customer loyalty and digital customer experience.
SVP of operations David Seymour leads the operations division, and American has switched Devon May from SVP of network strategy to SVP of American Eagle and operations planning. He will lead regional and mainline operations planning teams. Jim Butler, who has led American's international airport operations and cargo teams, now also will lead American's domestic airports as SVP of airport operations and cargo, a new role that will report to Seymour.
The network strategy team is now under Vasu Raja, whom American promoted to SVP of network strategy. In addition to his current role overseeing the carrier's global network, he also will oversee alliances and partnerships.
In a letter to American employees, Isom said the structure is designed to improve coordination across operations functions. "The most important thing we can do to … deliver a world-class customer experience is run a safe and reliable operation," Isom wrote. "We haven't been consistently hitting the mark, and that's not fair to our team or our customers. There are several reasons why that's been the case, but it's our job to find a way past temporary difficulties and make American better every day."
In addition, the structure includes an operations and commercial leadership team that will be a part of Isom's staff meetings and "bring the necessary visibility and accountability to the efforts and initiatives needed to excel," according to Isom. Taylor, May and the four division leaders form the team.