Conservative groups target American Airlines’ racial hiring efforts

Two conservative organizations, The National Center for Public Policy Research and the American Civil Rights Project, are demanding that American Airlines stop considering race while hiring just as the Fort Worth-based carrier has begun evaluating its diversity practices.

American has been trying to increase the representation of people of color in its pilot and executive ranks, two fields that have been overwhelmingly and historically white and male, all while the industry faces a national pilot shortage. As of 2021, More than 80% of American’s pilots were white and 95% were men.

American Airlines didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Scott Shepherd, director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project, said that since the protests during the summer of 2020, companies have erupted with varying diversity practices “without really understanding what it’s about.”

The National Center is a free-market, conservative think-tank that receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 60,000 active recent contributors.

“American understood what it’s about,” Shepherd said. “It embraced equity because it intends to discriminate, and is discriminating on the basis of race and sex. It’s actively taking race and sex into consideration in hiring and promotion, including for pilots, rather than hiring and promoting strictly on the basis of merit.”

American Airlines has faced criticism from conservative political groups and politicians for taking stances on issues such as Texas’ transgender bathroom and voting laws, drawing rebukes from those such as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who said “Texans are fed up with corporations that don’t share our values trying to dictate public policy.”

The demand letter from the conservative groups could trigger a response from executives at American, Shepherd said, or later a negotiation, or even a lawsuit. He said American Airlines has “no interest” in viewpoint diversity, but his organization is in favor of “all sorts of diversity.”

“Especially with an airline, the only basis that’s acceptable is the basis of merit,” Shepherd said. “We want American Airlines executives to follow the law and to hire and promote on the basis of merit to make the strongest company that’s the best for shareholders.”

In January 2021, the company said it set goals around Black representation and retention, met those goals by December.

Black representation at the director and above level increased by 50% versus 2020, and the carrier retained at least 90% of these leaders, according to a 2022 DEI progress update.

American also joined Rep. Alma Adam’s, D-North Carolina, Historically Black

Colleges and Universities Partnership Challenge to create more opportunities for HBCU students and graduates entering in the workplace. In 2021, the carrier launched the Executive Sponsorship Program for Black D+ leaders. It also partnered with McKinsey, a management consulting firm, to offer Black, Hispanic and Asian leaders the opportunity to participate in leadership academies.

Amid a national pilot shortage, which is being felt the hardest at regional carriers, American has boosted pay to make it more competitive and offered recruitment bonuses to pay for expensive flight school training, but analysts and executives have said it will likely be years before the shortage is fixed.