American Airline's Huffman To Replace Retiring Maintenance Chief Kruse

American Airlines (Ft. Worth, TX) announced that 31-year company veteran Dan P. Huffman, currently VP of Engineering and Quality Assurance, will replace David L. Kruse as senior VP of Maintenance and Engineering on June 12. Kruse will remain with American in a consulting role until he retires in October.

Kruse joined the airline in 1985 as VP of Maintenance and Engineering when the airline operated about 300 airplanes and four fleet types. At that time, the Tulsa maintenance base contained 1.5 million square feet of hangar and shop space and American operated one hangar each at DFW and Chicago O'Hare.

The airline now has more than 700 airplanes and 11 fleet types, opened the Alliance base and expanded at Tulsa, adding a total of 3.3 million square feet of space. Since 1985, the airline has also opened three more hangars at DFW and one each at Chicago and Miami. The maintenance and engineering staff also grew to more than 15,000 workers.

Huffman has been with American since 1969 and is a licensed A&P mechanic and private pilot. In 1983, he was named director of planning and production control and in 1990 was promoted to managing director of quality assurance. He has a B.S. in aerospace engineering and an M.S. in mechanical engineering, both from the University of Tulsa.

Edited by David Robb