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 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)