American Airlines CEO sends strong warning about airfare prices

American Airlines CEO sends strong warning about airfare prices

Veronika Bondarenko

Sat, September 19, 2026 at 6:07 PM GMT+3 3 min read

The price of jet fuel averaged $4.53 USD per gallon for the week ending Sept. 18, according to the latest Airlines for America U.S. Jet Fuel Index.

Driven by the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran at the end of February 2026, this price is a nearly 80% increase from the national average a year ago.

As a result, almost every major and regional airline has had to keep reworking its networks to maximize jet fuel use and ruthlessly cut any flights not bringing in the expected traffic.

Airline chief executives have also been sounding the alarm on what prolonged jet fuel prices could mean for the industry.

American Airlines' Isom foresees "adjustments in capacity planning"

"If fuel prices remain as high as they are right now, I think that that's going to require some adjustments in terms of our capacity planning as we take a look into the future," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said at the annual Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference in California on Sept. 16, Airline Geeks reported.

Along with the cancellation of several high-profile routes to Middle Eastern cities due to the security situation in the region, American Airlines has scaled back operations on multiple domestic flights.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) bore the brunt of recent cost-cutting, with routes there from cities such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh that were initially supposed to run through the fall now temporarily suspended.

Related: American Airlines cuts flight to Mexico due to low demand

Isom said he still expects American's third-quarter revenue to rise between 16% to 19% when the earnings are reported later in October. He added that while the airline has done a "great job of recapturing a tremendous amount of that expense" by tapping into high-revenue business and leisure travelers, more flight cancellations could follow if jet fuel prices stay at current levels for months, Fox Business reported.

Premium products were especially critical for the airline. Isom shared numbers showing that 30% of the airline's high-fare seats generated 50% of its total revenue in recent months.

United, Southwest Airlines CEOs also sound jet fuel price alarm

Other airline executives echoed similar sentiments at the investor gathering hosted by Morgan Stanley.

"We are not ​flying to maximize market share," United Airlines CFO Michael Leskinen said during his presentation, as Airways reported. "We're flying to maximize profitability and free cash generation."

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"If fuel is higher-for-longer, I think it's a natural response [….] that you trim some of that capacity off," Southwest Airlines CFO Tom Doxey also said, as Reuters noted.

While the executives did not specifically address how the rise in jet fuel costs will be passed on to consumers, many had previously confirmed that airfare price increases are an inevitable response to offset costs the airlines cannot keep absorbing.

Consumer Price Index data revealed that the average flight within the U.S. sold in June, July, and August cost 25% more than during the same months in 2025.

Related: Another airline cancels all flights for 30 days amid financial troubles

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Sep 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Travel section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.