But you guys have this going for you! Last week Maurice made one aviation writer's top ten list of all time for airline CEOs, and # 5 of 15 for a
"power ranking" of Jeff Smisek's contemporaries (source: Airways News/Vinay Bhaskara):

"the Top 10 airline CEOs of all time might look something like this.

Herb Kelleher
Richard Anderson
Gordon Bethune
Robert Crandall
Doug Parker
Ben Baldanza
Brad Tilden
David Neelman
Juan Trippe
Maury Gallagher
By my (admittedly subjective) count, 5 of the top 10 and 4 of the top 7 airline CEOs of all time are contemporaries of Jeff Smisek, and that absolutely affects how he is perceived. If you put him up against Ron Wolf, Frank Lorenzo, and Carl Icahn, all of a sudden he looks a lot better.

Moreover, even over the course of his tenure at United, he hasn’t necessarily been the worst CEO in the industry. By the same metrics, here are my “power rankings” of airline CEOs who were contemporaries of Smisek in the US industry.

Richard Anderson – Delta
Doug Parker – US Airways/American
Ben Baldanza – Spirit Airlines
Brad Tilden – Alaska
Maury Gallagher – Allegiant
Mark Dunkerley – Hawaiian
Gary Kelly – Southwest
Jeff Smisek – Continental/United
Bill Franke – Frontier
Tom Horton – American
Bob Fomaro – Air Tran
David Cush – Virgin America
Glenn Tilton – United
Bryan Bedford – Frontier
Jeffrey Erickson – PEOPLExpress"