Hey Delta: Did you steal my tape-recording pen?
3:28 PM Mon, Feb 22, 2010 | Permalink
Eric Torbenson/Reporter Bio | E-mail | News tips


While we do get an occasional bender of a story coming out of the professionally run Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, there's really nothing that comes to mind to compare to this gem coming out of our friends in Atlanta. Read onward.

The gist:

Executives from Delta Air Lines were chatting after a meeting with city of Atlanta negotiators ended when they discovered a high-tech pen on the table. It appeared to be surreptitiously recording their conversation.

Ben DeCosta, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's general manager, admits that he left the gadget -- he loves gadgets -- on the table with its recorder running. But he insists that he did not intend to record Delta's negotiators, and he even charged later that Delta stole his pen.

The extraordinary story emerged in public documents obtained last week by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That's good stuff. D/FW Airport and American are still in talks for the use agreement there - maybe the parties should offer to examine writing implements for the other side. (Actually, my queries about the Use Agreement talks haven't elicited much of anything in terms of real friction between the sides and I'd expect terms for a new deal at D/FW to come together over the next few months. I asked D/FW CEO Jeff Fegan about it and he said he wasn't losing any sleep over the Use Agreement talks.)