100 People, Companies, Concepts and Events that Have Shaped the Course of the US Airline Industry (and one man’s career in the business).
The Fifth and final in a series on Deregulation:
To commemorate my 100th swelblog post and to cap off my analysis of 30 years of deregulation, I submit the list of the 100 most influential people, things and events that have shaped my views and the state of the airline industry during this long experiment in deregulation.
This is a personal list – any other industry observers would clearly differ. Indeed, I know personally some of the people and sat in the room on some key dates – many of them during my early days as a flight attendant and union member in the industry, later in Chicago during my work with United Airlines. Others I know only by reputation or admiration.
Regular readers are encouraged to submit their own.
1. October 24, 1978
2. China: my airline absolutely needs the route, but do I really have to fly it?
3. Rick “Mad Dog” Dubinsky: no comment necessary
4. United pilots hire F. Lee Bailey; explore buying company
5. Harry Pinson and First Boston: United’s investment bankers that structured the United ESOP deal
6. United employees (excluding flight attendants) finally buy company
7. Chuck Goldstein: ALPA in house lawyer, for accepting millions in UAL ALPA ESOP deal
8. Gene Keilen: UAL ALPA investment banker being paid $16 million in failed deal
9. Gene Keilen: UAL ALPA investment banker being paid $16 million in successful deal
10. Gerry Greenwald making himself a lame duck and cashing out nicely
11. United pilots choke the Golden Goose on the way to a bankruptcy filing
12. United files for bankruptcy protection
13. Atlantic Coast Airlines rejects reduced pay for departure from United. Transforms into Independence Air
14. Independence Air files for bankruptcy and liquidates
15. PATCO Strike and President Ronald Reagan, first major labor challenge in deregulation era
16. Frequent Flyer Programs established
17. Hub and Spoke operations become the network configuration of choice
18. Harding Lawerence
19. Frank Lorenzo and his battles at Continental and Eastern
20. Marvin Davis and hostile raids on Northwest, United and US Air (and my $400 million mistake)
21. Bill Nyrop and his open door, or “no door” policy
22. David Bonderman and the Texas Pacific Group
23. Remembering Pan Am, TWA and Eastern
24. The Regional Jet and the building of the Regional Airline industry
25. Ed Colodny for building an airline run by pilots, run for pilots
26. Robert L. Crandall and his fingerprints on nearly every marketing innovation
27. Sabre and computer reservation system bias
28. Robert L. Crandall and Howard D. Putnam (Wylie?) talking on the telephone
29. Stephen Wolf (American, Continental, Republic, Flying Tiger Line, United, US Air(ways))
30. Alfred E. Kahn
31. Michael E. Levine
32. Joe Ritchie: Chicago commodity trader actually thinking about buying Eastern Airlines
33. Senators Ted Kennedy and Howard Cannon
34. President Jimmy Carter
35. Donald Burr and PEOPLExpress
36. Lamar Muse musing that frequent flyer programs were turning flyers into a bunch of mileage junkies
37. John Peterpaul: the smartest labor leader I have ever met
38. Braniff and the first lesson on overcapacity with Flying Colors
39. Herb Kelleher: icon
40. Richard Bloch as one of the most influential industry labor arbitrators
41. Larry Seibel as one of the most influential industry labor arbitrators
42. Ron Allen and Delta’s Leadership 7.5 Program
43. Robert Six: Continental Chairman
44. Frank Borman: Eastern Airlines CEO (not as an astronaut)
45. J.J. O’Donnell: ALPA President
46. Local Service Airlines
47. Trunk Airlines
48. Steven Morrison and Cliff Winston
49. Howard Hughes and the Flying Banana
50. Dan Katz: labor lawyer making a career out of seniority integration procedures
51. Sir Richard Branson
52. Grounding of the DC-10s
53. The Bildisco Decision – significant labor win regarding bankruptcy rules
54. Gordon Bethune
55. Pattern Bargaining and cost-plus agreements
56. Frank Swaboda when the Washington Post did a good job covering the airline industry
57. Uli Derickson, TWA flight attendant and heroine
58. Victoria Frankovich, International Federation of Flight Attendants
59. Carl Icahn and TWA
60. Carl Icahn deploying a team to the Department of Labor to study underfunded pension plans
61. Texas Air Corporation: Lorenzo’s holding company
62. New York Air: first meaningful upstart threat following deregulation
63. Ionosphere Clubs: first holding bankrupt by Eastern in order to get a New York venue
64. Today’s CEO’s (Ayer, Arpey, Kellner, Anderson, Tilton, Parker) and the legacies they inherited
65. Revenue Management – the dark science
66. Jeff Shane: his lifelong commitment to liberalization and opening markets
67. Piedmont Airlines: not today's regional carrier
68. Herman the Duck: from North Central to Republic
69. Kirk Faupel, Steve Cramer, Joan Prince and the Republic folks I worked with
70. Sault Ste. Marie, MI: and the airport basement room where I did my homework while paying for college as a flight attendant
71. American flight attendant strike
72. American pilots having to pay a $45 million fine
73. Jonathan Ornstein
74. George James, Lee Howard and Jon Ash who were influential in my start
75. Jim Bennett as a #2 at Phoenix and now CEO of MWAA
76. The late Mary McCarthy: my toughest and most challenging professor
77. Andy Steinberg: best government official articulating the rigors of the business
78. Northwest/KLM alliance and its importance to today’s industry architecture
79. The Wright Amendment
80. Peter Belobaba: demonstrating that academia can be based in reality
81. Charlie Bryan: IAM leader walking Eastern Airlines into liquidation
82. The Concorde
83. Tom Plaskett: the father of the Frequent Flyer Program
84. Freddie Laker
85. Juan Trippe and the Yankee Clipper and the Pacific Clipper
86. US Civil Aeronautics Board
87. Sunset of the US Civil Aeronautics Board
88. UPS Whiteboard Guy Envy: unlike passenger airlines with a legacy past he gets to start with a clean whiteboard
89. Air Canada Pilots Association: it is tamer in the US
90. “Carrier within a Carrier” concept
91. January 18, 1991
92. December 4, 1991
93. November 30, 2001
94. “Buh Bye”: before jokes about the airline industry would be commonplace on late night TV
95. STAR, SkyTeam and oneworld global alliances
96. American – AirCal; Northwest – Republic; TWA – Ozark; Delta – Western; US Air – PSA/Piedmont; and now Delta – Northwest (to name only a few)
97. Occam’s Razor and Chitragupta for their passion and beliefs
98. The price of crude oil in 2008: from $90 per barrel to $147 to under $65 and no speculative activity?
99. The evolution of the delivery of news and commentary on this dynamic industry
100. September 11, 2001
It has been fun to look back. Next up: Looking Forward.