US Air CEO Defies Buffett Adage Seeing American on Top

Doug Parker, returning to the carrier where he began his career, has a vision: He sees American Airlines vaulting to the top of the industry’s major financial benchmarks just three years after the merger he orchestrated with US Airways Group Inc.

Don’t take his visions lightly. Parker was chief executive officer of the eighth-largest U.S. carrier and the youngest airline CEO in America when he began calling for consolidation in the U.S. Twelve years later, the industry is about to shrink to three airlines with international reach, and the 51-year-old US Airways CEO was central to making that happen.