Hard Landing: The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos

But Delta delivered for its employees. Delta people got jobs for life; the company had not laid off a soul in 34 years. There had been no BOHICA, no concessions, no b-scales. Delta paid its people exceptionally well, not only by the standards of the low-wage southern United States but by airline industry standards as well. On the initiative of the

Crandall’s people reported that travelers were fed up with the ever-worsening complexity of the fare structure, a condition that no airline more than American was responsible for creating. American had carried complexity past the point of diminishing returns. A new generation of consumers brought up on Wal-Mart and double grocery coupons on Tuesday

For a boy who grew up poor, Wolf acclimated himself easily to the badges of fortune.

phone at People Express told him that either there remained unrequited demand for cheap flights over the Atlantic or the service being provided was incompetent. Either way there was an opening.

The self-destruction of Continental Airlines vividly revealed a principle as old as passenger flight itself: people will tolerate many sacrifices to fly, but they will not tolerate surprise.

Predictability—the fulfillment of expectations—is the most important factor in whether an airplane flight is a pleasantly efficient experience or one of modern life’s worst travails. This principle is doubly important on international flights.

Bob Crandall rapidly filled the void left by Eastern in Miami. Before long American would control 85 percent of the airline seats going in and out of the vital gateway. Having so many seats at a single airport, as he once explained to a meeting of his pilots, gave Crandall control not only over the local aviation market but over the community’s tra

Crandall again had become his own victim. His ferocious temper had blocked the flow of vital information.

In the brief time he had served as the president of Continental Airlines, Tom Plaskett learned that aircraft suppliers made a point of keeping a little something in reserve in any negotiation with Lorenzo, even past the point of the handshakes, because Lorenzo would try to re-trade the deal. They called it the “Frank factor.” Phil Bakes would call