Goldman Sachs Talks

Douglas Parker, Chairman and CEO of American Airlines

In this episode of Talks at GS, Douglas Parker discusses his strategy for navigating American Airlines through the most difficult period in the industry’s history, his focus on sustainability, and how the pandemic could transform the future of travel.

On the future of air travel: “People are willing to fly. We’re seeing that in leisure destinations certainly, but mostly what people need in order to fly is a reason to travel and, right now, for the most part, that’s to go to the beach, to go to the mountains. We need to it to be to go to work.”

On sustainability in the airline industry: “The biggest thing we can do is to make sure that we’re burning less jet fuel to transport the same number of customers. The best thing any airline can do for that right now is have efficient aircraft… We have the youngest fleet amongst the largest airlines in the world. That is the best thing we can do for the environment. That’s what we’ll continue to do. Now we can make even those airplanes more efficient; things like sustainable fuels, which we are investing in and are very excited about, but how we really get our carbon footprint minimized is through sustainable fuels and we’re working overtime to make that happen.”