CEO of American Airlines Group, the largest US airline, said in a recent interview that Warren Buffett and his team invested in the "big four" airlines in 2016 but sold them in April 2020 because the industry was too volatile for them.

"they've been out of the airline industry for a long time. Warren said how stupid it was to invest in airlines, and now they're investing again," Parker said of Buffett's big purchases of airline stocks in 2016. It's a big deal for them. "

Parker revealed that one of Buffett's two deputies, Ted Weschler (Ted Weschler),Berkshire HathawayLet him know in advance when he started buying shares in his company. Berkshire Hathaway also bought about 10% each of the other three major airlines-Delta, United and Southwest Airlines.

Buffett was betting that passenger numbers would continue to grow, share buybacks would continue, and airlines would at least maintain their value over the next decade. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 's epidemic failed his prediction. The epidemic brought travel to a standstill and airlines were forced to accept government bailouts, including repayable loans, stock warrants and restrictions on buybacks and dividends.

"it proves to them that the industry is still more unstable than they thought, and this is not the world they want," Parker said of his industry.

The CEO seems to admit that his company's stock may not be the safest asset for Berkshire over the next 50 years. "We got the shareholders we deserve, but we don't deserve them yet," he said. " He quoted Buffett as saying that the behavior of managers determines their investor base.

Parker did not say that Buffett was wrong to liquidate shares in the four major airlines, which have rebounded strongly over the past 16 months. But he points out, "No one can make every decision right."

Indeed, Kara Swisher, founder of Recode, recalled that Buffett told her a prediction on a show that turned out to be wrong. "he is wrong about the Internet," she said. He told me that the Internet was just on a whim. "