Vasu Raja

Vasu Raja is an American airline executive who was most recently chief commercial officer at American Airlines.

Education
Raja attended the University of Texas at Austin and earned a bachelors in the humanities.

Career
Vasu started his career with Teach for America in 1999 and taught in Baltimore City Schools for three years.

He joined American Airlines in 2004 starting his career in sales, planning, and revenue management. He eventually became chief revenue officer. In 2019, he was promoted to senior vice president of network strategy, overseeing network and alliances. He was the first Indian American to serve in the airline's c-suite.

In 2022, Raja was promoted to chief commercial officer along with the start of incoming CEO Robert Isom's term.

His total compensation in 2023 was $12.2 million. At the end of the year, it was reported that he held 339,170 shares of American stock valued at $4,148,049. In May 2023, he tasked with leading the search for a new Oneworld alliance CEO after Rob Gurney's departure.

As chief commercial officer, Raja was the driving force behind American Airlines' decision to discontinue first class and pivot to a low-cost carrier model. He was also the architect of American's "Northeast Partnership" with JetBlue which was dissolved by judicial order in 2023.

In May 2024, American Airlines announced that Raja would stand down as chief commercial officer the following month as it cut its profit guidance ahead of the summer 2024 travel season. For severance, he would continue to earn his base salary through January 2025 along with flight benefits and receive a lump sum payment of $968,750.