Originally Posted by
Boeing Aviator
Possibly true, but Smisek was very susceptible to the mantra of Wall Street. Don’t kid yourself, if he wasn’t fired he wouldn’t have pushed us down that path. He was on record numerous times as anti DEN and LAX. He gave up CAL’s old gates in terminal 6 (LAX) right after the merger. Kirby wouldn’t have loved those gates in LAX today just like the the gates Smisek gave up in JFK.
I agree we were going nowhere with Smisek and he indeed gave away gates at LAX and slots at JFK. Munoz watched and I assume voted to approve those moves on the BOD. Kirby coming not Munoz was what stopped the idiotic shrink to profitability crap. Munoz hired Haywood knowing about her ideas dehubbing IAD, DEN and/or LAX. Munoz didn't know enough about the airline biz to understand it was a stupid idea. We are incredibly lucky that Kirby became available two weeks later.