Call Service To Customers 'Embarrassing' In Letter To Management

The pilots union for American Airlines has sent a letter to AA CEO Doug Parker saying the airline has returned to "toxic" labor relations and is offering a substandard product following its recent merger with USAirways.

The Allied Pilots Association sent the letter March 4. In it, the union says the management team is "misaligned" with Parker's vision, resulting in "negative surprises for our pilots and our passengers."

In fact, the letter says, "the new American Airlines product is outright embarrassing, and we're tired of apologizing to our  passengers" and that crew scheduling "routinely violates our contract. Payroll appears to be incapable of correctly paying our piots, and Air Operations and Labor Relations operate at cross-purposes with your vision of a new culture.

"The pilot so American Airlines will not remain silent as we witness the rebirth of the toxic culture we fought so hard to eradicate," the letter states.

Bloomberg Business reports that American spokesman Casey Norton said in an interview on Sunday that the company's executives are "well aware" that there are issues that need to be dealt with, and that APA is "exactly right" to raise the issues it did in the letter. We're only two years into a five-year integration," Casey said. "Nothing is going as fast as we're wanting."

FMI: APA letter