American Airlines touts its strides in closing corporate share gaps with rivals

American Airlines continues to work feverishly to close the corporate revenue gap with its large US peers, and aims to generate million in revenues during the next four years by working to improve its corporate sales structure.

In early 2017, American executives admitted it had fewer corporate contracts than its competitors, mainly Delta and United, and declared it would close that gap over the next 12 months.

The airline has taken steps to bolster its corporate sales force, and calculates it has added 16,000 new small and medium business accounts since Jan-2017. "That's an...increase in total small to medium corporate accounts of 50%," American SVP of revenue management Don Casey recently explained.

He concluded 3Q2017 was the third quarter in a row where American has seen improved corporate performance in growing its share and closing gaps with its competitors.

Previously, American has calculated growth from business agencies and travel management companies has expanded from 1.3% to 4.5% from 1Q2016 to 2Q2017.

The airline believes it can generate USD175 million in incremental revenue by 2021 from focusing on improving corporate sales.