. . .Everyone loves to make fun of Tempe and Doug but if he goes from where AWA was pre 911 to the CEO of the world largest airline that will be pretty impressive and he didn't get there by being stupid . . .
I agree that DP is not a stupid man. Before we wax and wane sentimental over DP and HP, let's get some perspective here. You airline folks do not exist in a vacuum. The world is out there spinning round and round, even though its hard for any of us to notice this because we all are necessarily pulled into our own little cocoon spheres of employment and life.
The airline industry goes up and down. Events these past several years have shaken the foundations of the industry and continue to do so as oil and other issues are the next hammers waiting to pound away. Nothing new here. Banking goes through similar changes a decade ago. Markets and regulations change, corporate types pop up and all sorts of small banks get eaten by larger banks and these are in turn gobbled up by others. In the process, the boys and girls in the suits make big bucks off of the deals and the brick and mortar employees see jobs and benefits slashed. The customers get . . . well who knows what they get. It goes round and round, industry by industry.
So Mr DP is the HP boss who engineers a deal. That's what CEOs do hundreds of times a year across the corporate spectrum. It's all corporate life as usual and a part of the mechanics of business. I don't see DP being up for a Nobel prize just because he dabbles at a merger. Lots of aviation CEOs have done this.
Undoubtedly, mergers are a tough cookie to digest. IMO, Tempe forgot to take the wrapper off before they ate it. They're certainly done choking on it, but now I think it's stuck in the digestive systgem backing things up. All I know from the pax side is that DP and HP attempt a merger/acquisition with financials gurus trying to run ops and they fail miserably. No appluase from me because these hotshots finally try to bring an ops guy into the picture 3 years into the nightmare.
But the world has been spinning round and round and time marches on while DP plays his fiddle. The oil paradigm slaps down all airlines ( and those who aspire to behave like an airline ). It's pretty ominous stuff as more job cuts loom and from the pax side, airlines are now jacking you around by nickel-dicking you . . . that's right, the e-mail I got informs that I refuse to pay more for my ticket so they are "unbundling" airline services while still doing great things for me. And people say that government uses doublespeak?
US is lucky that someone considers dancing with them. But it's not luck created by DP's genius. It's circumstance of the moment as all airlines and CEOs play the game of cover-your-ass. I don't really blame them for this as that's the name of the game. So if this merger deal happens as I think it might ( to me, the hint is the corporate shake-up on the UA side last week ) it happens because it was gonna happen as a necessary consequence of dire times and industry-wide change. And because it's a "businiess as usual " deal, it means that employees get chopped up some more, customers get a free prostate check-up, and the corporate big boys pat themselves on the back and rake in their millions. Remember, this corporate game is a good old boy/gal game by which the corporate hotshots protect each other. You always promote screwups because you could be the next in line.
I'll be relieved if Tempe is out of the picture and I'll happily take my medicine with a new owner as for me, it's not about what DP did or did not do. It's all about the arrogance and lies told to pax and employees while insisting otherwise. Make your millions. But do not lie to me.
Hey, DP will find a new niche to ply his talents and wave his CEO flag as that's the nature of the game. He's got great initials for the adult entertainment industry.
Barry
Big or small...who cares. well..big or small company that is! 🙄
