In October 2015, American Airlines sent out a Special Jetwire to staff announcing its plans to build a new corporate campus adjacent to its existing campus in Fort Worth. Now, some seven years later, the final piece of that puzzle is nearing completion, with the employee hotel and conference center set to open in the first quarter of 2023.
A step-change for American Airlines people
The American Airlines’ headquarters campus is named after former CEO Robert L. Crandall. Image: American Airlines
The new corporate headquarters, the Robert L. Crandall Campus, sits on 300 acres (121 hectares) of airport property south of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Robert L. Crandall was a former American Airlines CEO who headed the airline from 1985 until 1998. The campus carries a price tag of $1 billion (€1.03 billion).
In 2015, American Airlines (American) said that more than 75,000 employees, including all 15,000 pilots and 25,000 flight attendants, attended training or meetings at the Flight Academy and Training and Conference Center the previous year. In a Special Jetwire American told employees they would be moving into the new campus in late summer/early fall 2018 but added a prescient sentence saying, “for now, it’s business as usual.”
Last week, the airline sent a staff memo, which it shared today with Simple Flying, announcing that the new employee hotel and conference center, known as Skyview 6, will open in the first quarter of next year. According to the Dallas Morning News, Skyview 6 costs $250 million (€256.7 million) and is replacing the American Airlines flight attendant hotel that’s been sitting on this site since the 1960s.
Skyview 6 is the new Fort Worth campus and hotel for American Airlines’ staff and is set to open in 1Q 2023. Image: American Airlines
The new campus will provide many of the same training and educational programs previously offered, but its larger size makes these available to all of American’s 130,000 employees. It told staff:
“Each year, thousands of team members from across the operation come to campus to learn – spanning from new hire and recurrent training to team members in new roles. “We’re hoping to simplify team members’ visiting experience by building a modern hospitality complex at the heart of our campus. aplace where visiting team members can lodge, eat, socailize and work out.”
What’s in the new Skyview 6 facility?
While there’s no mention of dancing, the new Ballroom will be used for conferences and presentations. Image: American Airlines
Skyview 6 is certainly no average college dorm or boarding school, with the nine-story facility including 600 rooms, a 73,000 square foot (6,780 square meters) fitness center with a swimming pool and outdoor basketball, tennis and pickleball courts. It also has a 10,000 square foot (930 square meters) ballroom for hosting events, such as American’s quarterly “State of the Airline” meeting, and can be used as a conference center. The dining room will serve guests breakfast, lunch and dinner, and American said, “the tavern will be an evening social space for games, light bites and drinks.” On this point, the staff memo added:
“All team members will be able to enjoy the core facilities, including meeting spaces, expanded dining options and sports courts. It’s a place for learning and development, for us to care for each other and for us to grow stronger as a team.”
In the American Airlines hospitality complex, the term staff accommodation takes on a whole new meaning. Image: American Airlines
The latest addition on the campus began construction in 2019 but was put on hold in 2020 as the pandemic threw the airline industry into a morass of uncertainty. Building resumed in 2021, and soon American’s team will experience everything Skyview 6 offers, professionally and personally.
It would be great to hear from any American Airlines team members about their expectations of the new facility.
Source: Dallas Morning News