88. generation of charter operators: “Charter Growth Sparks Concern,” by Rosalind K. Ellingsworth, Aviation Week, Feb. 28, 1977.
89. no panacea either: “American Fare Bid Draws Fire,” by Laurence Doty, Aviation Week, Feb. 21, 1977.
90. Crandall finally decided: Baker 4/23/93 interview; Plaskett 4/21/93 interview.
91. “pretend the empty part”: The account of the origins of super savers is based on the Crandall 4/23/93 interview and the Kaldahl 4/27/93 interview. Varying accounts also appear in Serling, Eagle; Reed, American Eagle; and Peterson and Glab, Rapid Descent.
92. glared through a window: The Venetian blind incident was partially described in “Frequent Crier: American Airlines Boss Blossoms as Champion of the Poor Passenger,” by Francis C. Brown III, WSJ, Mar. 4, 1988. The circumstances of Crandall’s outburst and the order for a special computer instruction against TWA were described in the Murray 9/4/93 interview.
Chapter 4: “In the Public Interest”
1. a brilliant day: Bakes 5/11/93 and 6/16/94 interviews.
2. Breyer wondered: Breyer’s line of inquiry is detailed in “Memorandum to Thomas McBride from Stephen Breyer,” Aug. 2, 1973, made available by the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act.
3. lost its way: Breyer’s views are detailed in Breyer, Regulation and Its Reform, and in “Airline Deregulation in America,” by Stephen Breyer, ITA Magazine, May 1986.
4. resurrect … Watergate: Bradley Behrman, “Civil Aeronautics Board,” in Wilson, The Politics of Regulation, page 100.
5. most vexing problem: Ibid., page 102.
6. “nonglamorous … job”: Breyer, Regulation and Its Reform, page 323.
7. “let’s get rid”: Bakes 5/11/93 interview.
8. bow and scrape: Ibid.
9. “the inherent tendency”: Keyes, Federal Control of Entry into Air Transportation, page 326.
10. “unnecessarily high fares”: “Is Air Regulation Necessary?” by Michael E. Levine, Yale Law Journal, July 1965.
11. “raise cost to the level”: Kahn, The Economics of Regulation, page 209.
12. “rat is a bird”: Lazarus 6/10/93 interview.
13. Ferris had an open mind: Ferris described his thought process in the 5/27/93 interview and in “Proposed Policy on Regulatory Reform,” presented to United board of directors, Aug. 26, 1976.
14. Ferris presented … a long report: “Proposed Policy,” Aug. 26, 1976.
15. growing enamored: Zeeman 7/23/93 interview.
16. Bakes felt the same … compulsion: Bakes 5/12/93 interview.
17. hotel fire alarm: Lazarus 6/10/93 interview; Bakes 6/11/93 interview.
18. For eight days: The hearing record is contained in U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, Oversight of Civil Aeronautics Board Practice and Procedure, Feb. 6, 14, 18, 19, 25, and 26, Mar. 4 and 21, 1975.
19. officials were carefully chosen: Brown, The Politics of Airline Deregulation, page 107; Breyer, Regulation and Its Reform, pages 327-28.
20. “find a scandal”: Bakes 5/11/93 interview.
21. “The only word … flashing”: Transcript, U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure, Inquiry into the Failure of the CAB to Investigate Fully Certain Violations of the Federal Campaign Laws, Mar. 21, 1975.
22. “dishonor of the fool”: Letter from William Gingery to subcommittee staff, Feb. 15, 1975, appearing in ibid.
23. “Total deregulation”: “Borman to the Rescue,” by James Conaway, New York Times Magazine, May 9, 1976.
24. the same rhetoric: Bakes 5/11/93 interview.
25. 47 flight attendants: Ibid.
26. Bakes … relentlessly flirted: Ibid.
27. rendezvous with Al Casey: Ibid.
28. one of Bakes’s colleagues: Bakes 6/16/94 interview.
29. “naturally competitive”: “Options on Airline Regulation Reform,” memo to the President-elect from Simon Lazarus, Mary Schuman, and Harrison Wellford, Dec. 22, 1976.
30. strengthened the call: Cohen 2/16/93 interview; “American Fare Bid Draws Fire,” by Laurence Doty, Aviation Week, Feb. 21, 1977.
31. United held back: Lazarus 6/10/93 interview; “Airlines Unable to Agree on Regulatory Reform Stance,” Aviation Daily, Mar. 3, 1977.
32. quit frolicking: Boies 11/11/93 interview.
33. three to four years: Ferris 5/27/93 interview.
34. “Properly written”: Remarks by Monte Lazarus to United board meeting, Jan. 27, 1977.
35. began to applaud: Lazarus 6/10/93 interview.
36. “first question”: Quoted in “Washington Roundup,” Aviation Week, Feb. 28, 1977.
37. “As a first step: “Airline Industry Regulation,” Public Papers of the Presidents: Jimmy Carter.
38. speech at the Commonwealth Club: “Chief of UAL’s United Favors ‘Philosophy’ of Regulatory Reform,” WSJ, Mar. 14, 1977.
39. “the greatest thing”: Quoted in “Winning His Wings: United Airlines’ Ferris Sets Expansion Plans, Alarms Carrier’s Rivals,” WSJ, Mar. 2, 1979.
40. scheduling their bosses together: Bakes 5/11/93 interview; Lazarus 6/10/93 interview.
41. inserted whole: Lazarus 6/10/93 interview.
42. turned to Al Feldman: Ibid.
43. buy off the unions: Bakes 5/11/93 interview.
44. “hardest to destroy”: From “Essay on Bureaucracy,” by Max Weber, in Rourke, Bureaucratic Power in National Politics, page 58.
45. only sensible course: Robson 1/7/93 interview.
46. furiously lobbied: Cohen 2/16/93 interview.
47. writing a dissent: Ibid.
48. visibly startled: Brown, The Politics of Airline Deregulation, page 113.
49. “mesmerized by computer models”: U.S. Senate, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Aviation, Apr. 1, 1977.
50. “fucking academic eggheads”: Bakes 5/11/93 interview. Crandall does not recall the comment but does not deny making it.
51. In contemplating candidates: Ibid.
52. “free-fire zone”: “CAB Proposes 50% Fare Cut Zone,” Aviation Week, Apr. 10, 1978.
53. “get big quick”: Ferris 5/28/93 interview.
54. death of the senior senator: “Washington Update,” National Journal, Dec. 3, 1977.
55. “help raising some money”: Bakes 5/12/93 interview. Mineta’s staff, though confirming Kennedy’s appearance at a fundraiser, said it was unrelated to his stance on deregulation.
56. a $433,000 tax reimbursement: Bakes 5/11/93 interview. Bakes recalls Frontier seeking a $10 million subsidy but contemporaneous accounts cite $433,000.
57. a thumbs-up: Lazarus 6/10/93 interview.
58. Bakes and … Kennedy pressed themselves: Bakes 5/12/93 interview.
59. “For the first time”: Quoted in Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 95th Congress, 2nd Session, 1978.
60. spectacle ensued: “Airline Emissaries Rush to CAB Offices for Dormant Routes,” WSJ, Oct. 20, 1978; “The Line Forms Here for Air Routes,” BW, Nov. 6,1978; and “Dormant Authority Rush Begins,” Aviation Week, Oct. 30, 1978. The CAB remained in existence in shrunken form for several years as its powers were taken away or, in a few cases, shifted to other federal agencies.
61. carrying a gun: Bakes 5/12/93 interview.
62. no one holding a place: Gitner 3/16/93 interview.
Chapter 5: Start-ups and Upstarts
1. baby elephant defecated: Hicks 6/14/93 interview.
2. Deregulation, in his view: Lorenzo 5/5/88 interview.
3. “somebody else’s sandwich”: Ibid.
4. Burr … worshiped him: Burr 9/16/93 and 9/17/93 interviews.
5. true soul mate: Bakes 5/12/93 interview.
6. impressed by Burr’s ability: Quoted in “Growing Pains at People Express,” by Reggi Ann Dubin, BW, Jan. 28, 1985.
7. Idi Amin: Burr compared Lorenzo to any number of dictators in the interviews of 9/16/93 and 9/17/93.
8. veins in his temp
les: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
9. Who’s going to get it: Dawsey 9/16/93 interview.
10. “run a lawn mower”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
11. had been wrapped up: Burr 9/17/93 interview.
12. plan to reform: Burr’s scheme was detailed in the 9/16/93 interview. A copy of the plan was made available to the author by another party.
13. “Don, come here”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
14. “Carney rolls the spitballs”: Coats 6/9/94 interview.
15. The next four: Based on 1978 rankings according to revenue passenger miles.
16. fact that appalled Lorenzo: “Texas International’s Lorenzo Believes He Has a National Grasp,” by Nicholas C. Chriss, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 29, 1978.
17. never been a hostile: Davies, Continental Airlines, page 85.
18. Slowly and imperceptibly: Russell, Miami Herald, Aug. 6, 1978.
19. hands were trembling: J. Arpey 9/8/93 interview.
20. breathtaking route map: Shugrue 9/8/93 interview; Plaskett 8/31/93 interview.
21. “to our side”: Quoted in Halaby, Crosswind, page 275.
22. making things worse: Pan Am’s travails in the Carter years and other periods are detailed in many publications and were described in a number of interviews. The best accounts include “Deep-Rooted Causes of the Current Crisis,” Lloyd’s Aviation Economist, June 1986, and “Bumpy Flying: Plagued by Problems, Pan Am Fights Rivals as Well as Internal Ills,” by William M. Carley, WSJ, Jan. 10, 1979.
23. “airline … without a country”: Daley, An American Saga, page 444.
24. tussled for weeks: The takeover battle is detailed, among other places, in “Merger Politics: It’s a High-Stakes Game of Power, Pressure, Persuasion,” by James Russell, Miami Herald, Nov. 19, 1978.
25. underdog strategy: Coats 6/9/94 interview.
26. Don Burr realized: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
27. “gobble up United”: Quoted in “Lorenzo the Presumptuous,” by James Cook, Forbes, Oct. 30, 1978.
28. at the house of … Bob Six: Lorenzo’s encounter with Six was described in the Bakes 5/12/93 interview and in Murphy, The Airline That Pride Almost Bought, page 21.
29. greatest living figure: Six is profiled in “Last of a Breed: Ex-Pilot Bob Six Uses Iron Hand, Tough Talk at Continental Airlines,” by W. Stewart Pinkerton, Jr., WSJ, June 11, 1970, and in Davies, Continental Airlines, passim.
30. reaching for the ashtray: “How Bob Six Keeps Continental Humming,” by Joseph S. Murphy, Air Transport World, Apr. 1965.
31. covert operations: Sampson, Empires of the Sky, page 108.
32. breakfast at the Hotel Carlyle: Lorenzo’s encounter with Smart is described in “Texas International, Thwarted in Bid for National, Eyes Bigger Target—TWA,” by William M. Carley, WSJ, Sept. 14, 1979, and in “Top Gun,” by William P. Barrett, Texas Monthly, Mar. 1987.
33. “Thirty-nine!”: O’Donnell 6/9/94 interview.
34. “piece of shit”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
35. put his people plan: Ibid.
36. “I resign”: Ibid.
37. “Frank would … kill us”: Ibid.
38. needed to raise money: Detailed in “That Daring Young Man and His Flying Machines,” by Lucien Rhodes, Inc., Jan. 1984.
39. strewn with garbage: Burr 9/16/93 interview; Rhodes, Inc., Jan. 1984.
40. “No one has ever made it”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
41. wide-open markets: “People Express Discounts Fares Heavily,” by James Ott, Aviation Week, Apr. 13, 1981.
42. Burr … traveled to Boston: Burr and Dawsey 9/16/93 interview.
43. “The plain truth”: Quoted in “True or False: Air Safety Is Worse Than Ever,” by Robert E. Machol, WSJ, Sept. 10, 1987.
44. with Christmas approaching: Stich, The Unfriendly Skies, pages 1-4.
45. far west as Denver: “Airlines Fear Broad Flight Cancellations as Delays Eat Up Pilots’ Hour Quotas,” WSJ, July 23, 1968.
46. vacuums … on the East Coast: The strategic origins of New York Air were described in interviews with O’Donnell, Bakes, and Gitner, as well as in the company’s Feb. 20, 1981, prospectus and in a number of contemporaneous articles, including “New York Air: Troubled Airline Fights Back,” by David Corbin, Airline Executive, Sept. 1982.
47. turn cold: Quoted in Corbin, Airline Executive, Sept. 1982.
48. path of Southwest: Lorenzo 5/5/88 interview.
49. matter of the unions: The antiunion intentions of New York Air were affirmed by nearly every executive remotely affiliated or familiar with it.
50. airplanes … Burr had ordered: Bakes 6/11/93 interview.
51. “upstreamed” from Texas International: Bakes 5/12/93 interview.
52. patterned after Southwest: “Special Situation” report on New York Air by Robert A. LaFleur, Rotan Mosle Inc., New York, June 30, 1981.
53. breakfast at the Jockey Club: Bakes 5/12/93 interview.
54. looking for … a brother: Ibid.
55. got … Kennedy to insert: Ibid.
56. fashion models: Ibid.
57. kept the sum small: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
58. “sex appeal”: Quoted in “CAB’s Ex-Chairman, Alfred Kahn, Looks at Airline Industry He Helped Deregulate,” by Bill Richards, WSJ, Oct. 4, 1983.
59. William Hambrecht: Burr 9/16/83 interview; Rhodes, Inc., Jan. 1984.
60. “This fucking guy”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
61. human forms making love: Ibid.
62. loaners against: Baker 10/14/93 interview.
63. “whores and bastards”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
64. appointment with Murdoch: Ibid.
65. 710,000 founder’s shares: Prospectus for People Express stock offering, Nov. 6, 1980.
66. privacy of his bedroom: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
67. brash New Yorker: Bakes 6/16/94 interview.
68. “Runaway shop!”: Raymond Rogers, letter to the editor, NYT, June 14, 1981.
69. rented a billboard: A photo of the billboard was provided by Higgins.
70. widow of … La Guardia: Bakes interviews of 5/12/93 and 6/11/93.
71. champion of the pilots’ union: Hopkins, Flying the Line, page 50.
72. pilots’ union railed: Bakes 6/11/93 interview.
73. Eastern fought back: “Pan Am to Cut Fares Between Washington, Newark, N.J., to $29,” WSJ, Jan. 8, 1981.
74. captured one quarter: “Upstarts in the Sky,” BW, June 15, 1981.
75. An ad … in Buffalo: Rhodes, Inc., Jan. 1984.
76. they would all go down: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
77. “no potholes”: From early People Express ad, included in JR Productions’s The People Remembered.
78. ultimate frill: “A Champ of Cheap Airlines,” by Peter Nulty, Fortune, Mar. 22, 1982.
79. chief financial officer: “Manager’s Journal,” by Donald Burr, WSJ, Jan. 7, 1985.
80. “quality of attractiveness”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
81. “a character flaw”: Burr 9/17/93 interview.
82. “very disruptive”: “Bitter Victories,” an interview with Burr by George Gendron, Inc., Aug. 1985.
83. “thinks he’s John Madden”: Sullivan 6/8/94 interview.
84. “Be Luke Skywalker”: Burr 9/17/93 interview.
85. “fall in love at work”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.
86. alcohol flowed freely: The party, including the sex, was described in the Burr 9/17/93 interview.
87. wept with joy: “Up, Up and Away?” by John A. Byrne, BW, Nov. 25, 1985.
88. utterly transform: The secondary effects of the firing are described, among other places, in Eight Years of U.S. Airline Deregulation, by Frank A. Spencer and Frank H. Cassell, Transportation Center, Northwestern University, Jan. 1987, and in “Suicide Pact at Eastern Air Lines,” by Thomas Moore, U.S. News, Mar. 20, 1989.
89. Germany with their wives: The account of People Express’s response to the PATCO strike is based on the Gitner 3/31/93 i
nterview; Burr 9/17/93 interview; “Rapid Ascent: People Express Flies into Airlines’ Big Time in Just Three Years Aloft,” by William M. Carley, WSJ, Mar. 30, 1984; and Nulty, Fortune, Mar. 22, 1982.
90. Gitner and his wife boarded: Gitner 3/31/93 interview.
91. “Come up with a new plan”: Burr 9/17/93 interview.
92. dining room table: Gitner 3/31/93 interview; Nulty, Fortune, Mar. 22, 1982.
93. out of the question: Carley, WSJ, Mar. 30, 1984.
94. Kennedy … flew People: Nulty, Fortune, Mar. 22, 1982.
95. Montreal residents … began driving: “U.S. Fares Pull Canadians Across Border,” by Alan Freeman, WSJ, Mar. 18, 1983.
96. eschewed such technology: Burr 9/17/93 interview.
97. “for hours, days, and weeks”: Quoted in Carley, WSJ, Mar. 30, 1984.
98. the gospel of People Express: Burr 9/17/93 interview and Rhodes, Inc., Jan. 1984.
99. “Gerry loves planning”: Nulty, Fortune, Mar. 22, 1982.
100. first progeny: Midway Airlines is sometimes cited as the earliest of the post-deregulation carriers, although the company was actually founded well before the law took effect. Midway failed after several very successful years.
Chapter 6: The Empire Strikes Back
1. affinity for solving puzzles: Olsen 9/2/93 interview.
2. apocalyptic flare-ups: Plaskett 1/14/93 interview.
3. in a horse race: Crandall 9/1/93 interview; Lloyd-Jones 3/10/94 interview; and D. Reed, American Eagle, pages 112-17.
4. Lloyd-Jones intervened: Lloyd-Jones 3/10/94 interview.
5. problem was resolved: Crandall, in the 4/23/93 interview, confirmed receiving and considering the offer from Lorenzo. The timing, however, is unclear; Crandall recalled that Lorenzo already controlled Continental and wanted Crandall to run it; other events strongly suggest that Lorenzo made the offer before gaining control of Continental.
6. “Each of us wanted”: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.
7. “Christians and lions”: Crandall speech to marketing meeting, Inn of Six Flags, Dallas, Feb. 25, 1981.
8. “bleed American red”: Ibid.
9. “person of ideas”: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.
10. Crandall began every week: The description of Crandall’s staff meetings is based on interviews with many who participated over the years.
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