Originally Posted by slowplay

No. He left "to pursue other opportunities" in 2007 after a string of indecisions and bad decisions, the most public of which was talking at the Paris Air Show about Delta ordering 125 B-787. He was gone within 6 weeks of that faux pas.

Of course we "liked hearing from him" as he told us what we wanted to hear. Then he'd go down the hall to a different work group meeting and say something completely different. He'd top it off with a visit to his crowning achievement, the "Velvet Rope Tour" and yuck it up with the Flight Attendants. He was a helluva chief operating officer - I can't think of a thing that he did that's still in use here other than IFS pandering. He loved taking credit for other people's work, and ran away from accountability for his and his subordinates actions.

Grinstein was leaving in 2007 and Delta was looking at Whitehurst and Bastian as internal candidates, plus the creditors committee had stacked the board with people wishing to look at outside candidates for a new CEO. Whitehurst was supported by Kolshack and Gerry Carolan (VP labor) among others, and his people worked really hard to undo LOA 51 to try and take more. They didn't lose any sleep...they wanted to maximize the pain for us and use the leverage they had. Thankfully, they lost. Ultimately the BOD selected Anderson for CEO and Bastian for president.

You may not like what Bastian said in court or at the 3 man panel, but you'd really not like the snake that was Whitehurst. He and his minions wanted a lot more from you.