Vasu Raja
Vasu Raja is an American airline executive who was most recently chief commercial officer at American Airlines.
Education
[edit]Raja attended the University of Texas at Austin and earned a bachelors in the humanities.[1]
Career
[edit]Vasu started his career with Teach for America in 1999 and taught in Baltimore City Schools for three years.[1]
He joined American Airlines in 2004 starting his career in sales, planning, and revenue management.[1] He eventually became chief revenue officer.[1] In 2019, he was promoted to senior vice president of network strategy, overseeing network and alliances.[2] He was the first Indian American to serve in the airline's c-suite.
In 2022, Raja was promoted to chief commercial officer along with the start of incoming CEO Robert Isom's term.[3]
His total compensation in 2023 was $12.2 million.[4][5] At the end of the year, it was reported that he held 339,170 shares of American stock valued at $4,148,049.[6] In May 2023, he tasked with leading the search for a new Oneworld alliance CEO after Rob Gurney's departure.[7]
As chief commercial officer, Raja was the driving force behind American Airlines' decision to discontinue first class and pivot to a low-cost carrier model.[8] He was also the architect of American's "Northeast Partnership" with JetBlue which was dissolved by judicial order in 2023.[9]
In May 2024, American Airlines announced that Raja would stand down as chief commercial officer the following month as it cut its profit guidance ahead of the summer 2024 travel season.[10][11] For severance, he would continue to earn his base salary through January 2025 along with flight benefits and receive a lump sum payment of $968,750.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Vasu Raja - Chief Commercial Officer". American Airlines. Archived from the original on 2024-05-29. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "American Airlines' alliance chief to leave following Latam loss to Delta". Dallas News. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ Airoldi, Donna (2021-12-14). "American Airlines Details Exec Changes Under Incoming CEO". Business Travel News.
- ^ Leff, Gary (2024-04-12). "How American Airlines' CEO Earned $31.4 Million While The Company Struggled". View from the Wing. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ a b Maharishi, Meghna (2024-07-12). "A Lump Sum and Flight Benefits: American Airlines Posts Severance Package for Former Exec Vasu Raja". Skift. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
- ^ "American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Analysts". MarketBeat. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "oneworld CEO announces intention to depart the alliance". www.oneworld.com. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "American Airlines Is Getting Rid of First-Class Seating Because 'Customers Aren't Buying It'". Peoplemag. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ "Daily Memo: An Abrupt End For The American Airlines-JetBlue Northeast Experiment | Aviation Week Network". aviationweek.com. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- ^ www.bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-28/american-airlines-commercial-chief-raja-to-step-down-next-month. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "American Airlines chief commercial officer Vasu Raja to exit the airline in June". Dallas News. 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2024-05-29.