Originally Posted by
REF 5
Actually the last few episodes of AC have been great. I don't agree on how they deal with labor but they are mangement. The Richard Anderson episode was a great insight about how Delta became the #1 airline in the business. It started with him once they merged with NW. Very interesting how he stated its about the operational side of the airline first, then marketing can play their games. Mx and operational reliability are the core of any airline. EB as CEO of Delta would not have it as good without the frame work of RA set in place at Delta. For those us on the op side of things, it's a great listen. Most CEO's have a finance/lawyer background but the better ones(RA and Gordon Bethune) that have heavy op side background seem to figure it out.
Since SWA fired the last head of commercial side of the business, AW has been doing duel jobs it seems as COO and CCO. Most of these displacements are coming to his people. Granted, they need to be done as far as the network(not displacements) is concerned but make no bones about it, AW is behind a lot of the network shake up. In the end BJ is ultimately responsible but AW is the nuts a bolts of it. He is a lot better speaker than he was a couple of years ago. He is definitely a wonky guy. As the podcast pointed out, BJ's contract is up in FEB and EM's silence agreement also ends on FEB. We may wake one morning and a whole regime change may take place at SWA. 2026 should be interesting.
That episode was pretty much the only one worth listening to. I agree he is remarkable among airline CEOs and he definitely defined the way the entire business has changed.
I can only take so much DUI Doug as cohost. The episodes with Muņoz are generally informative and a lot more coherent. I enjoy the show, but they are leaning a lot on the rotating cohosts lately, which is good and bad.