Now of course this needs to get approved by US trade regulators, but when it does, (who are we kidding, nobody's going to block this) we're going to have 3 major airlines;
Delta
American
and United.
Ok, MAYBE you can add US Airways to that list since they are technically national since they merged with America West back in 2005.
Take a trip with me won't you? Down memory lane, or, in this case, down memory taxiway Bravo. Let's go all the way back to....are you ready?....the 1980's! Ronald Reagan, BMW's, Sushi, neon colored Izod popped collared shirts, fired PATCO air traffic controllers, and Frank Lorenzo! Who? Huh?
Let me explain....
Back then, how many airlines were there? Oh let's rattle off a few of them that are no longer with us today;
Air Florida
Brannif
Eastern
Florida Express
Ozark
PanAm
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA)
People's Express
Provincetown Boston Airlines
Republic Airlines
TWA
and those are just a few off the top of my head!
Further more, I've actually been a passenger on more than a few of these airlines. I remember flying Piedmont through Raleigh-Durham on my way to Fort Dix for Basic Training, flying People Express back home from Basic, and flying a DC-3 (yea I know how cool right? at the time a 50 year old, prop driven, tail dragging airliner) to Key West that was from PBA and was based out of Miami for the winter months.
When I worked at the airport, I got to drive the big old tractor tugs from Aircraft Services International to push back from the gate a PanAmerican Airlines 747, and I think I broke two tow bars trying to push back a TWA 727 late one night.
Finally, I got to see those really old guys in their shorts, black socks, and steel toed boots wearing their Eastern Airlines uniform shirts sitting on chairs around the carousel where the baggage came down from the gates at the main terminal making 17 bucks an hour (big money to me in 1987) to lift one bag seemingly every 20 minutes. (How's that for nearly a run on sentence?)
I remember being insanely jealous of them, and at times I aspired to get a job like them, but then I realized a few things. These were grown men, in their 50's and 60's, who had probably worked for Eastern all of their lives. They had probably cut their teeth throwing luggage into the bellies of Lockheed Electras, DC-7's, DC-8's and 707's in the snow at JFK, DTW, ORD, BOS, PHL, and other cold weather big cities and through their seniority, bid to work for those coveted open positions in places like MIA, MCO, TPA and RSW so they could run out the clock and retire with a nice pension, and fly for free for life.
The one thing I remember the most, is man.....did these guys hate a guy by the name of Frank Lorenzo.
Not to get into to much detail about it, after all that's what Wikipedia is for, but suffice to say, Frank Lorenzo, CEO of Continental Airlines, had bought Eastern Airlines through the parent company of Continental, Texas Air, and was systematically moving Eastern assets and equipment from the Unionized Eastern, to the non Union Continental. That caused all these old guys to have conniptions, and they would strike in heartbeat to protect what they had earned through previous strikes, after all, it worked before right?
Well, long story short, Lorenzo didn't play ball, and on the day the airline went on strike I watched as one by one, 727s, A300's, and 757's piled up at the Eastern Airlines gates, because not only were the pilot's walking away after shutting down the aircraft, but there was nobody at the gate to run the jetway, there were no mechanics or baggage handlers to push the aircraft away from the gate to make room for the other flights that were arriving and being abandoned right there on the ramp.
At the end of the day, of the 3 gates that Eastern had at Airside 1 of Terminal A at Orlando International Airport were 5 aircraft for every one of those gates, so a total of 15 (maybe more) airlines sat idle like the giant toys of a kid with a very short attention span had just walked off and left them all askew on the tarmac. I remember the sunset that day was a brilliant blood red color, and the reflections off of the brushed aluminum skin of those Eastern Airliners as they sat not knowing what was going to happen next, well, it was a sight I'll never forget. The airline that was started by WWI Ace Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, an airline who had an Astronaut who had been to the moon in Frank Borman, was alas no more.
So, fast forward to today, and Continental Airlines, the company that Frank Lorenzo had completely eviscerated and made new again, survives in the name of United Airlines. All the others, they're part of the history books now, never to return. Hey let's face it, there is a lot already gone about the airline industry, the days of rubber chicken Airline food, smoking in the cabin, sky high airfares, and the not so uncommon plane crash or two. But of course gone too are the flight attendants in mini skirts, people that dressed up to fly even in coach, and hell even free peanuts, but I think the most important thing that's gone is the sense of ourselves. We're headed to a nation that only has one car manufacturer, let's hope we don't get to that point with the airlines, otherwise collecting Jr. Pilot Wings is going to get pretty boring.
