American hires industry veteran to lead commercial team as profits trail rivals

American Airlines has hired nearly three-decade industry veteran Nat Pieper to be its new commercial chief as the carrier's profits trail rivals Delta and United.

American ousted its former chief commercial officer, Vasu Raja, in 2024 after his business-travel strategy backfired and sparked pushback from lucrative corporate travel agencies, while revenue projections dropped sharply.

Pieper, 56, has worked in the industry since the late 1990s with experience at Northwest Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines. Most recently, he's run the massive Oneworld airline alliance that includes American, British Airways and others. His positions included high-level roles in network, alliances, fleet strategy and finance.

"He is exactly the kind of leader we want at American — collaborative and a great people leader with a relentless focus on delivering results while keeping an eye to the future," American CEO Robert Isom said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC.

Pieper told CNBC in an interview last month that airlines in Oneworld need to do more to improve technology to make travel more seamless for customers, even when they're moving between partner airlines, a hint of how he might improve technology while he's at American.

He starts Nov. 3 and will oversee the Fort Worth, Texas' airline's commercial strategy, loyalty program, network planning and revenue and sales departments, among others, American said.