American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) CEO Doug Parker has rejected the notion that the carrier may consider Chapter 11 bankruptcy as an option, saying, “I don’t think people should view bankruptcy as a financial tool. [...] Bankruptcy is failure, and I’m not going to do that.”

“While some like to play the game of ‘Gee who might be in trouble?’ I think we’re all going to be fine,” Parker told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference last week, according to Forbes. “I don’t think you’ll see any airline go by the wayside as a result of this crisis.”

American’s debt, which is higher than that of Delta Air Lines or United Airlines, prompted concerns even before the coronavirus outbreak, which continues to keep airline travel at minimal levels while the US economy contracts.

On May 12, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told NBC’s Today broadcast that he believed a major US airline would go out of business this year, saying, “I don’t want to get too predictive on that subject, but yes, most likely. You know, something will happen when September comes around.”

The pandemic’s obliteration of demand hit a structurally robust US airline industry, Parker argued, so it is not like the 1990s and 2000s when a bankruptcy would alleviate excess competition.

“Their capacity would go away and all of a sudden your revenues would go up,” he recalled.

Since mid-May, American’s new bookings have started to outpace refunds, with positive booking trends now visible in all fare categories, Parker claimed.

“People are now sitting down and making plans, not being stimulated by a fare to go tomorrow,” he said. “More and more people are feeling comfortable today, but we need to get to a point where all Americans are as comfortable flying as they should be.”

Passenger travel in the US is likely to be 10% to 20% smaller in summer 2021, the chief executive said, and recovery will depend on how demand and revenues evolve.

In the meantime, as previously reported, American is retiring 100 mostly widebody aircraft while Delta is removing its B777s. The fleet retirements will equate to “a really big airline [...] The effect is going to be as though a large airline went away,” Parker said.