By Dean Seal and Allison Pohle

After years of missteps, American Airlines has one of the trickiest problems a company can face: Its own employees are calling for Chief Executive Robert Isom to step down.

On Monday, directors of American's flight attendants union issued a vote of no confidence in Isom, who has been in the role since 2022. The rebuke comes after the union representing American's pilots last week said it lost faith in management improving the company's operations and financial performance.

"We require leaders who are willing, equipped, and empowered to get the house in order," the Allied Pilots Association union said in a letter to the airline's board, which includes Isom.

Winter Storm Fern last month was the latest in a string of problems that put the Dallas-based airline on its back foot. The storm hit U.S. airlines hard, leading to more than 21,000 flights canceled over four days.

No airline was hit harder than American, which has major operations hubs in Dallas and Charlotte, N.C. The storm stranded thousands of American's travelers, and some of its flight attendants and pilots had to sleep on airport floors. Isom apologized to customers while the airline was digging out from the snow and ice.

"[We're] certainly doing everything we can to make sure that they are taken care of," Isom said on a Jan. 27 call with analysts.

Employees and longtime customers said the airline's issues are bigger than forces of nature. In 2025, American canceled flights at the highest rate among major U.S. airlines, while its rate of on-time arrivals worsened from the prior year.

American also generated less revenue than its rivals Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, and only a fraction of their profits. Over the past 12 months through Tuesday's close, American's stock price has declined 8%, compared with a 13% increase for United and a 15% gain for Delta.

The airline lost ground to other carriers after a failed bid to overhaul its business-travel strategy. Domestic air travel accounts for a larger slice of American's business than Delta and United, and a market downturn last year hurt its earnings more than the other two.

Executives at American have pledged to get the airline back on track, and get delays and cancellations under control. New customer initiatives, including adding more business-class seats on flights, are intended to increase earnings sixfold this year.

Isom declined to comment through company representatives. Last weekend, the CEO said he and the board agreed that Isom should meet with the pilot union's leadership. They have insisted on meeting with the full board.

Isom told a leadership conference last week that the airline is set up for growth: "2026 can't just feel different," he said. "It has to be different."

CEO's reset

Isom became CEO after nearly six years overseeing the company's commercial and operations divisions as president. Besides Covid-19's shock to the travel market, the airline was facing contentious labor relations, frustrated investors and operational stumbles.

Before he started the role, he stressed efficiency in operations and not overspending. Months later, he listed his top goals as running a reliable airline and returning it to profitability. "That's the entirety of our focus," Isom said on a July 2022 conference call.

Investments in technology helped drive improvements in American's operations, especially around weather-related disruptions.

But in 2024, its cancellations and delays grew, similar to other major carriers. A midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter the following year also rattled the company's operations.

Only JetBlue and Frontier Airlines had worse on-time performances than American last year, and American had more delays lasting longer than 45 minutes than any of its big rivals.

American relies more than other airlines on regional flights, which are more prone to being canceled when disruptions hit, said Samuel Engel, senior vice president of consulting firm ICF International.

At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, American's biggest hub, the airline clusters flight arrivals and departures within short time frames to facilitate faster connections for passengers. That allows little room for error, Engel said, and can stress the entire network during major disruptions like last month's winter storm.

Michael Quigley and Barbara Mittman, longtime American travelers from San Diego, were trying to connect through DFW on Jan. 27 for a vacation abroad. Delay updates weren't timely or consistent, and after they got on the plane, the pilot alerted them of a fueling issue that kept everyone on the tarmac for another hour.

By the time the plane landed in Madrid, Quigley and Mittman said, they had missed their connecting flight and American had misplaced two of their bags.

The snafu followed an American flight to the East Coast in November, when Quigley and Mittman said that American misplaced one of their bags. The couple said they are considering giving up their American-branded credit card.

"I've been shocked," Mittman said. "It's kind of like, 'maybe the next one will be better,' but it hasn't been, and we're just very disappointed."

Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said American is building more slack into its flight schedules to ensure more on-time departures and reduce delays. It is also restructuring its schedule at DFW starting in April. "Any improvements that we make in there, we're starting to see those pay dividends throughout the network," Seymour said.

Losing patience

American is also leaning into a shift in consumer preferences toward premium products, albeit later than Delta and United.

It has been retrofitting planes to have better business-class seats, opening and redesigning its airport lounges, and launched a new co-branded credit card with Citi to catch up to competitors' profits this year, Chief Financial Officer Devon May said.

The unions representing American's flight attendants and pilots, who are compensated in part with a share of company profits, said they are tired of waiting for a turnaround.

Leaders of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 28,000 American employees, said the recent vote was driven by the airline's lagging operational performance, strategic missteps and increased compensation for Isom and top executives.

The vote was the first against a chief executive in the union's history, and it was unanimous among the board's 10 voting members.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com and Allison Pohle at allison.pohle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

American Airlines is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and one of its major operations hubs is at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. "American Airlines Is Struggling, and Its Crew Members Have Lost Patience," at 5:30 a.m ET, incorrectly said American and one of its major hubs were based in Dallas.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2026 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT)

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