The CEO of American Airlines, Robert Isom, has suddenly become the target of an unusual public revolt from the people who run the airline on a day-to-day basis. In early February, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) backed a unanimous vote of no confidence in Isom and escalated the pressure with a protest outside the airline’s headquarters in Fort Worth. For crew members, the dispute is not just about labor politics, but more so, the belief that repeated operational breakdowns and lagging results are being treated as normal, all while frontline employees absorb the chaos across the board. The immediate flashpoint was American’s messy recovery from Winter Storm Fern.