News
2005-10-01
American Airlines
names new head of GLBT outreach
American Airlines
officials said Monday they have named 11-year company
veteran George Carrancho to national sales and marketing
American Airlines
officials said Monday they have named 11-year company
veteran George Carrancho to national sales and marketing
manager–GLBT community. The personnel move
comes as the airline carrier was recently given a
perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2005
Corporate Equality Index, the HRC’s barometer
on how fairly companies treat their gay employees.
Carrancho and
fellow sales and marketing manager Betty Young now make up
the airline’s Rainbow TeAAm, a marketing group begun
in 1994 to specifically target gay and lesbian
travelers. According to Carrancho and Young, the
Rainbow TeAAm is recognized as the first GLBT national
marketing unit at a Fortune 100 company and is the only
group of its kind at any of the domestic carriers.
“The
Rainbow TeAAm sponsors some of the top gay organizations
such as HRC, GLAAD, and Lambda Legal, and we try to
make sure their constituents know about
American,” Carrancho said. “We help with these
groups’ events, specifically with flight
discounts and sponsorships.”
In addition to
the Rainbow TeAAm’s national affiliations, Carrancho
said, “right now we’re trying to start a
GLAAD chapter in Dallas, and we’re also a huge
sponsor of Dallas Pride." American is headquartered in
the Dallas–Ft.Worth area.
American’s
reasons for marketing directly to gay and lesbian fliers are
not only civic-minded but practical as well. “The
GLBT community is hard dollars, and they tend to be
very loyal,” said Young.
Carrancho, who
was previously an account sales and development manager in
American’s New York office, hinted that GLBT
allegiance to the airline will not go unrewarded:
“Stay tuned—there’s going be some new
stuff real soon, but I don’t want to tell just
yet, because I’m sure Delta and United would
love to know.” (Neal Broverman, Advocate.com)
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 1