At the quarterly internal ‘State of the Airline’ employee meeting held right after their earnings call on Thursday (a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing ), American CEO Robert Isom addressed potential mergers with United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Spirit.

Merging with United is a non-starter. It would never be allowed, and it’s so anticompetitive consumers would lose.

They’re looking to deepen their partnership with Alaska.

They’re not buying Spirit, they are just too incompatible. But they will help stranded passengers if Spirit folds.

Isom addressed these as a “few elephants in the room.” They’re the kind of things employees talk about at the water cooler, like they were earlier in the year speculating that Isom would be fired by the board after poor 2025 financial performance and an operational meltdown at the airline that had flight attendants sleeping in airports (and senior executives disagreeing with each other whether it happened , and whether it was okay ).…