Robert Crandall
Robert Lloyd Crandall (born December 6, 1935) is an American businessman who is the former president and chairman of American Airlines.
Quotes
[edit]- People refusing to take a vaccine, which is scientifically unassailable in part because they don't trust the government and in part purely for purely politics. I mean, because I'm a Republican, I'm not going to take a vaccine... in effect... the Republicans, the individuals, not the Republicans, have adopted the notion that my freedom includes the right to kill you by not taking them vaccine.
- "Airline Legends Interview with Bob Crandall" (14 July 2021)
- Market share is important because you're going to fly between point A and point B. You need to offer a reasonable amount of frequency that's something that... That you used to have to in order to appeal to some segment of business travellers and there will be some business travel frequency. Therefore, frequency isn't going to become completely unimportant, maybe less important than it used to be. But if you're going to be a competitor in a given market, you find that market, you will, you can't, you can't rely on price, right? To say, well, I've got, I've got 2% of the capacity, but in order to fill the aeroplane, I've got to have 5% of the business. It's not going to work that way. And the consequence market share is important. You can't... To be a participant in the market. You've got to have a representative pretend age of capacity and, correspondingly, a representative share of the business. Alternatively, you're going to find yourself in very difficult times.
- "Airline Legends Interview with Bob Crandall" (14 July 2021)
- The business market has always been price sensitive, within itself. The airline business has been bitterly competitive for many, many years. The consequence is that yes, business travel is not as price sensitive as leisure travel, but when you are trying to sell business travel to the companies that they work for, it's a very competitive business. So, certainly, business traveller is price sensitive. It's just price sensitive in a different way. Not in the absolute sense that the leisure business is very price sensitive in any case.
- "Airline Legends Interview with Bob Crandall" (14 July 2021)
- This whole business of trying to get costs down to a competitive level has always been difficult and it will be increasingly difficult, I think, as the market changes in the way that we've discussed. I think labour cost, particularly, which has always been the sticky wicket in the major carriers, and the people who run the major carriers, and the people who work for the major carriers are going to have to be realistic.
- "Airline Legends Interview with Bob Crandall" (14 July 2021)
- Everyone will be looking for ways to distribute around that cost difference and to add value in ways that are low cost carrier may not be able to offer that. So it promises to be an extraordinary, interesting time and the airline has always been interesting.
- "Airline Legends Interview with Bob Crandall" (14 July 2021)
- Whether we limit travel because it's going to become more expensive or whether we limit it because we ration it or whether we do it in some other way, I don't know. But I... It just seems to me that the notion of the rate of growth that we've become accustomed to, even the rate of growth that certainly the average person would like to see, because people do want to travel, it's the greatest, it's the most desired product in most people's mind... they don't have that they'd like to have more of... Even so it seems to me that you're right, there's this conflict between what we have to do to safeguard the environment and what we would like to do in a whole variety of areas, including travel.
- "Airline Legends Interview with Bob Crandall" (14 July 2021)
- Frequency has always been desired. This is what the public wants, it was frequent fights. It does not want a few flights on big airplanes. So, the industry, if they’re going to serve the public properly, isn’t going to use bigger equipment until it already has enough frequency.
- I don’t give a sh*t about the low-cost carriers. I just told you a minute ago. If the legacy carriers cannot get their costs down to match the low-cost carriers, they’re finished. So, the question is, will they get their costs down? I don’t know. You know, [we probably won’t] know for 10 years.
- I'm not very optimistic about the United States from the political perspective. If the U.S. got its political act together, it has a lot of natural advantages versus a lot of other places in the world. Until we solve this business of these terribly gerrymandered districts, which send extremists to Congress, I don't see much hope for sorting out the political situation.
- "Interview: Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall" in BTN (17 January 2014)
- The infrastructure of the country, all the roads, all the bridges, all the water systems are just not going to be maintained. To the extent they are not maintained, our ability to compete with countries that are maintaining their infrastructure is compromised. What has been one of the great strengths of the United States over the years is just going to diminish. This political extremism that we've fallen victim to is doing very bad things to the economy.
- "Interview: Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall" in BTN (17 January 2014)
- I don't think business travel is going to change dramatically. You will have three very large multinational mega carriers competing against one another, and the only thing I think that will drive is a greater focus on service levels. Because there will be three big carriers and because business travel is tremendously important, carriers rather than focusing maniacally as they have in the past on growth will focus on hanging onto their share of the business traffic, and that's going mean more attention to better service. People able to pay business-class and first-class fares are going to see improved service levels.
- "Interview: Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall" in BTN (17 January 2014)
- Fuel is a basic part of the business. Everybody basically pays the same price for fuel. It is a matter of how appropriately you trade off capital costs against operating costs. New airplanes burn less fuel but they take more capital.
- "Interview: Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall" in BTN (17 January 2014)
- The ubiquity of social media only makes the point. You look at what other people have and you can never get because you don't have education, because you don't have access to medical care, because there's no decent jobs.
- I became successful because I lived in a society that offered an opportunity to everyone.
- If you're going to have an active and successful democracy, you have to have equal opportunity.
- In the '50s and '60s ... if you worked hard and tried hard, you could do well. It's much harder to climb the ladder of economic success now than it was then.
