Robert L. Crandall, Retired Chairman and CEO, AMR and American Airlines
Biography provided by participant
The Wall Street Journal has called Robert L. Crandall, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AMR Corporation and American Airlines, "the man who changed the way the world flies." During his 25-year tenure at American Airlines, Crandall was instrumental in introducing several changes which revolutionized the travel industry.
In 1973, Crandall sponsored a project to modernize American's SABRE computer reservations system, thus laying the groundwork for what eventually became The SABRE Group, now a leading provider of computing and communications services for airlines throughout the world. In 1975, Crandall created Super Saver fares, which introduced the concept of deep discounts for advance-purchase tickets. Subsequently, he led the development of the industry's first yield management system, a revenue-maximizing approach now used throughout the airline industry. In 1980, he created AAdvantage, the industry's first frequent flyer program, and in 1983, launched an expansion program which more than tripled American's size and transformed it from a medium-sized domestic carrier to one of the world's leading international airlines with revenues of more than $20 billion.
Crandall is currently Chairman and a Director of Celestica Inc. and a Director of Anixter International Inc. He is a member of the Federal Aviation Administration Management Advisory Committee and is a Director of, or a consultant to, several non-public companies.
Among the many national and trade publications that have honored Crandall for his achievements and executive leadership are Business Week, Industry Week, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Financial World, and Air Transport World. In April 1997, Crandall received the Horatio Alger Award, which honors individuals who have achieved success despite challenging life circumstances.
A native of Westerly, R.I., he is a 1957 graduate of the University of Rhode Island and received a master's degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1960.
Crandall and his wife, Jan, live in Florida and Massachusetts. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren, and enjoy bridge, sailing and gardening.
In recent days, there has been lots of media and public comment about the inexplicable behavior of two Northwest Airline pilots who somehow lost situational awareness and flew 150 miles past their destination before correcting their situation. All the furor is a useful reminder of how the professional pride and conduct of cockpit crews and the legal and regulatory requirements imposed on them by society have made flying increasingly safe. While airline travel has become ever safer, automobile travel continues to be extremely hazardous. Jacqueline Gillan’s recent post makes the point that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of… Read more
I am not sure that an aviation executive qualifies as an expert on tolling Interstates, but as a concerned citizen, I am very much opposed to any such transaction unless the agreement contemplates clearly stated economic or operating advantages that cannot be achieved in any other way. Agreements proposed to date contemplate nothing but converting anticipated future net cash flows into a lump sum which will be applied to other uses. As such, they are a dishonest tax, marketed as improving efficiency and encouraging "private sector" initiatives but in reality doing nothing but converting the future value of taxes… Read more
Travel safety in the United States seems, like so many things, to be primarily a political issue. Jim May’s earlier response to this question sets out, in some detail, the approach taken by the FAA and the airline industry to increase safety in airline travel. The intensity and integrity of those efforts have yielded ever better aviation safety statistics, and in the years ahead, there is every reason to believe that the public’s unwillingness to accept large numbers of injuries and fatalities in aviation will sustain a continuing effort by the industry to operate at ever higher levels of safety.… Read more
Establishing an objective of reducing VMT reflects a failure to understand the underlying economic importance of travel and tourism. We need to encourage travel, not discourage it!!! In all probability, an integrated policy designed to reduce vehicular emissions, promote energy conservation and provide alternatives to driving personal automobiles will result in fewer VMT, since it is unlikely that more acceptable personal vehicles will be developed soon enough to permit VMT to continue to grow. However, policy makers should focus on the problems – excess emissions, excessive petroleum consumption and inadequate travel alternatives -- rather than to the consequences of inadequate past planning.… Read more
These are three different questions. Let’s do one at a time. No, I do not think Chairman Oberstar is going the wrong way on either Alliances or Foreign Ownership, although many in the industry will doubtless disagree. In my view, an objective observer would have to look very hard to find a way in which alliances have benefited consumers. In the major markets now dominated by alliances -- U. S. / Paris and U. S. Frankfurt for example -- there is far less competition now than there was in pre-alliance days. And that is exactly as one would expect, since… Read more
The answer to the question, of course, is that in the absence of capable management, projects will be poorly run and the nation will get a poor return on transportation investments. The broader question is "Why can't we attract capable people into public service, including DOT"? The bottom line is that our society has chosen to rank accomplishment entirely in terms of earnings, to characterize government as incapable and to mythologize “private enterprise”. Until we restore the notion that the common good is a worthy objective, and learn to respect organizations that work towards its realization, we will likely be unsuccessful… Read more
Kathy: Will you and others comment, please, on why you arrived at a consensus in favor of "user pays". I think all would agree that every citizen of the United States benefits from the existence of world class transportation facilities, whether Rail, Road, or Air. Thus, it has always seemed to me that broad based -- say VAT -- taxation ought to bear at least a portion of the cost of transportation services. Indeed, no matter what collection methodology is used, user fees will eventually filter back to all citizens in the form of high product and service prices… Read more
The immediate and negative White House response to LaHood’s suggestion is symptomatic of the sound bite politics that has driven the country to so many bad choices in the past. It is quite clear that using gasoline taxes to finance our highway system will not work for long. Since energy conservation is a clear national priority, and improved mileage for vehicles an important component of achieving success, we will have to find other means of maintaining the roads. At this juncture, the right answer isn’t clear since we have not yet debated – or decided – whether transportation, including highways,… Read more
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} In any sensible environment, the first step in implementing a construction based stimulus plan would be creation of (1) A national transportation plan and (2) A national energy plan. A country that mobilized for war as rapidly as ours in the 1940’s, and is as blessed as we are with imaginative and… Read more
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Unhappily, low gasoline prices are likely to have a very adverse impact on the public’s willingness to support the steps needed to accomplish the changes which virtually everyone agrees the country needs to make in the years ahead. We need a national energy plan designed to reduce our dependence of imported oil,… Read more
The time has arrived --- but we need a plan before we build In the furor over finding ways to increase and sustain employment, and the understandable desire to use infrasturcture investment to attach that problem, we need to remember that money invested in the wrong tools is the equivalent of money wasted. Given the depth of our present financial problems, and the fact that we will get only once chance to fix those problems -- including our transportation and energy problems -- we had better do some planning pronto. Over a period of many years, we have dispersed much… Read more
Biography provided by participant
