American Airlines announced yesterday that they will be developing new uniforms for its service staff.  Pilots, flight attendants, customer service agents and others will be given a new look and AA has engaged the designers Ken Kaufman and Isaac Franco to do the work.

This isn’t about the need to urgently rebrand the airline.  This is about AA attempting to create a story to send their message to the  unsecured creditors that everything will be OK if they permit a stand alone bankruptcy exit.  AA and its executive team has been working frantically from a PR point of view to send this message and particularly so this month.

The problem is that it is becoming rather shrill.  Yet, they manage to do this while choking off US Airways with a non-disclosure agreement.  That NDA doesn’t prevent US Airways speaking privately though.

What bothers me is how they’re working so hard to stay on script and timing without paying attention to feedback.  For instance, the overwhelming poor feedback on their livery would, in my opinion, ordinarily ask for a pause in the efforts.

But that’s the problem with the current team:  They are extremely deaf to critical feedback and particularly so when it comes to external sources and even external stakeholders.  If I’m a member of the UCC, I’m going to be annoyed with the persistence being shown here without regard to putting first things first.

Filed under: Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax