Originally Posted by
CousinEddie
The irony is that it is clear that Jeff Smisek would have been an awful airline pilot. The principals of CRM, which have applications in any managerial scenario, were completely alien to his being. He shut down those that questioned him and surrounded himself with yes men and women. This allowed one poor decision after another to be implemented and go unchallenged. The result is that we now work for the weakest major airline in America which will be the most vulnerable to the next industry calamity.
That is what scares me the most right now, but DAL and AMR are no better. Post 9/11, and bankruptcies, most of the majors got lean and mean. Simplified fleets, slimmed down structures, etc. Post merger's, all of the majors, including DAL, have way to many aircraft types, and employee groups not yet integrated. DAL at least has their employees merged.
All this is being masked by record RASM, and now cheap oil. A huge industry downturn would be nearly catastrophic for UAL and American, and bad for DAL. We are so screwed up, it would take another chapter 11 to fix it.
We are more bloated that we were in 2001.