During American Airlines’ Q4 earnings call on Thursday, CEO Robert Isom reiterated American’s aim to fully recapture corporate business by the end of 2025. 

American’s corporate share took a hit when the airline heavily pursued direct and New Distribution Capability (NDC) bookings in parts of 2023 and 2024. American last May jettisoned that strategy, which had alienated travel agencies and their corporate customers.

“We remain on track to fully restore our revenue share from indirect channels as we exit this year. I feel really good about the progress we’ve made in a short six-month period,” Isom said, adding that an 8% year-over-year increase in Q4 business travel revenue represented “a sequential improvement of two points versus last quarter, and we continue to see yield strength as we look ahead into the new year. … As we take a look at forward bookings, it really suggests that we’ve got traction in the marketplace.”

American vice chair and chief strategy officer Steve Johnson, who was tapped to oversee the carrier’s corporate recovery, suggested American’s share of that segment could be made full even sooner than year’s end but added “it’s not a linear process.”

Johnson noted that American’s abandonment of its prior strategy along with the restoration of fare content into the legacy GDSs and Isom’s engagement with American’s partners in the third quarter had an impact on share. The fourth quarter was “a little bit different,” he said.

During Q4, American focused on negotiating new deals with corporate travel agencies, Johnson said. “While it was going on, understandably, we were negotiating, so you didn’t see a lot of share shift during that period of time. But it was ultimately successful, and we now have new agreements with 30 of the most important agencies.”

Johnson added that the agreements “create real incentives to move business to American. I expect those agreements are going to be big drivers of share shift in the first and second quarter,” he said. “So, you’ll see continued progress.”

Isom said that the carrier also reviewed and reworked agreements with its corporate customers most affected by the previous strategy and “largely restored share of those travelers in our hub markets,” he said. “I spent a considerable amount of my time making sure that I was up to speed and talking to our corporate customers and agencies, as well. That work is paying off.”

American reported fourth-quarter passenger revenue of $12.4 billion, up 3.3% year over year. Q4 net income was $590 million.

Source: Business Travel News