Robert Crandall

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Robert Lloyd "Bob" Crandall (born December 6, 1935) is the former president and chairman of American Airlines. Called an industry legend by airline industry observers, Crandall has been the subject of several books and is a member of the Hall of Honor of the Conrad Hilton college. He received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Rhode Island.^[1] Robert Crandall was raised in Rhode Island.

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.^[1]

Before the passing of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, Crandall was one of the act's loudest opponents. In 1982, he had a famous conversation with Braniff 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. 1982 was also the year that Crandall became American's president. In 1985, Crandall succeeded Albert Casey as American's chairman.

In 1997, he received the Horatio Alger award for disadvantaged people who have reached important status in their fields. In 1998, Crandall retired from American and he went on to work as director of many other companies, including American Express. He is the 2001 recipient of the Tony Jannus Award for outstanding leadership in the commercial aviation industry.^[2]

Crandall is credited with creating one of the first frequent flyer programs in the airline industry, the AAdvantage program, as well as pioneering modern reservations systems through the creation of Sabre. He is also credited with pioneering yield management. Currently he is serving as CEO of POGO, a company that will offer air service using very light jets in the United States. Crandall also serves as a senior adviser and sits on the board of AirCell, an in-flight telephony company which won the larger of two licenses for air-ground data service that will provide in-flight broadband and, eventually, in-flight cellular telephone service.