Robert Lloyd "Bob" Crandall (born December 6, 1935 in

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popul ...

) is an American businessman who is the former president and chairman of

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

. Called an industry legend by

airline industry An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which ...

observers, Crandall has been the subject of several books and is a member of the Hall of Honor of the

Conrad Hilton Conrad Nicholson Hilton Sr. (December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979) was an American businessman who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. From 1912 to 1916 Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature, but became disi ...

college.

Early life

The Great Depression forced Robert Crandall's father to leave Rhode Island to work selling life insurance, which resulted in multiple relocations. Crandall ended attending 13 schools before his high school graduation. He graduated from the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

, and from the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

of the University of Pennsylvania, with an MBA.

Airline career

In 1966, he joined TWA, where he worked for six years. In 1972, he left to become a senior financial officer at Bloomingdale's Department Stores, but he returned to the airline industry in 1973, as senior financial vice president of American. In 1982, he had a famous conversation with

Braniff Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an airline in the United States that once flew air carrier operations from 1928 un ...

CEO Howard D. Putnam, in which he told Putnam that if Braniff raised their prices, American would too. Crandall has publicly expressed embarrassment over that conversation. That same year, Crandall became American's president. In 1985, Crandall succeeded Albert Casey as American's chairman and CEO. During the latter period of Crandall's tenure as CEO, investor concern over airline bankruptcies and falling stock prices caused Crandall to remind his employees about the dangers of investing in airline stocks. Known for his candor, Crandall later told an interviewer, "I've never invested in any airline. I'm an airline manager. I don't invest in airlines. And I always said to the employees of American, 'This is not an appropriate investment. It's a great place to work and it's a great company that does important work. But airlines are not an investment.'" Crandall noted that since the

airline deregulation Airline deregulation is the process of removing government-imposed entry and price restrictions on airlines affecting, in particular, the carriers permitted to serve specific routes. In the United States, the term usually applies to the Airline Der ...

of the 1970s, some 150 airlines had gone out of business. "A lot of people came into the airline business. Most of them promptly exited, minus their money," he said. Crandall is credited with creating the first major mileage-reward frequent flyer program in the airline industry, the

AAdvantage AAdvantage is the frequent-flyer program of American Airlines. Launched May 1, 1981, it was the second such loyalty program in the world (after the first at Texas International Airlines in 1979) and remains the largest, with more than 67 millio ...

program, as well as pioneering modern reservations systems through the creation of Sabre. He is also credited with pioneering yield management. Crandall also serves as a senior adviser and sits on the board of

AirCell Gogo Business Aviation (formerly Aircell) is a division of Gogo Inflight Internet is a provider of in-flight broadband Internet service and other connectivity services for business aircraft. It is headquartered in Broomfield, CO. Gogo Business ...

, an in-flight telephony company which won the larger of two licenses for air-ground data service that provide in-flight broadband service. In 1998, he retired from American and he went on to work as director of many other companies, including Celestica, Haliburton, and Anixter.

Criticism of deregulation

Before the passing of the 1978

Airline Deregulation Act The Airline Deregulation Act is a 1978 United States federal law that deregulated the airline industry in the United States, removing federal control over such areas as fares, routes, and market entry of new airlines. The Civil Aeronautics Bo ...

, Crandall was one of the act's loudest opponents. When asked to comment on deregulation in June 2008, Crandall stated: In 2018, he stated:

Reputation for cost-cutting

While at American Airlines in the 1980s, Crandall was famed for his focus on cost-cutting. One story that has been frequently retold since is that he came up with the idea to remove one olive from every salad served to passengers. No one would notice and the airline would save $40,000 a year. Another story, which Crandall himself shared, involved cutting security at a Caribbean station warehouse to the point that the only guard left was a sound recording of a guard dog barking.

Honors and awards

* Hall of Honor of the

college. * Horatio Alger award, 1997. * ''

Tony Jannus Award The Tony Jannus Award recognizes outstanding individual achievement in scheduled commercial aviation by airline executives, inventors and manufacturers, and government leaders. The award is conferred annually by the Tony Jannus Distinguished Avia ...

'' for outstanding leadership in the commercial aviation industry, 2001. * L. Welch Pogue Award for Lifetime Achievement in Aviation, 2004. *

Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy The Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy was established by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) in 1948 after a trust fund was created in 1936 by Godfrey Lowell Cabot of Boston, a former president of the NAA. It is awarded to a living America ...

from the National Aeronautic Association, 2006.

References

External links

*
"Something Special in the Air?"
''PBS News Hour'', May 20, 1998

- A ''New York Times'' op-ed by Crandall, Apr 21, 2008
"A Conversation With Robert L. Crandall"
''DePaul University'', Sep 22, 2009 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crandall, Robert 1935 births Living people American airline chief executives American Airlines people Businesspeople from Rhode Island University of Rhode Island alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni