Traveling Blog: Accor's $1 Billion Africa Bet + Bob Crandall Sounds Off + Ryanair's Profit Turbulence

July 24, 2018

Editor's Note

The risk, of course, of interviewing an octogenarian, retired CEO is that you'll get a worldview that feels very dated. But Bob Crandall, who sat at the helm of American Airlines for a decade and a half, offers Executive Editor Dennis Schaal an unfiltered perspective on his former industry that feels quite relevant. Maybe candor comes with being 82.

Crandall was most pointed about the effects of consolidation. He tells Schaal that Delta's acquisition of Northwest in 2008, the United-Continental deal of 2010, and the US Airways-American Airlines merger, which closed in 2013, all contributed to the mess the traveling public finds itself in today. He goes as far as to say the merger frenzy across many industries has disadvantaged workers and been a big contributor to income inequality in the U.S. today. For an executive who came of age in an era of the hard-nosed, cost-cutter CEO, Crandall shows an empathy that certainly doesn't feel like it was shaped in a corporate ivory tower. Crandall's long lens of history, as you will read in Schaal's piece, does not disappoint.

— Tom Lowry, Managing Editor

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So much for being asset light. However, this strategy does align with previous comments the AccorHotels CEO has made about wanting to lead in emerging markets, Africa included.

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When mergers go awry, it isn't always merely because the acquired company was a dog. Sometimes the purchaser likewise screws the whole thing up.

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