Gordon Bethune to United?

[TowerDog]

Here is a fresh rumor: Continentals CEO Gordon Bethune is jumping ship and taking same position with UAL.....

Any truth to this one?

[turbine trip]

If true, must be a tremendous pay/benefit package... My guess is that COA's board would out-bid most anyone else to keep him on board.

[West Coast]

If its true, I hope that he brings his management team with him. By himself he would bring charisma and a different style, but his management team is what made the difference in IAH

[6feetunder]

It'll be the second time he will have been offered the job. Just after he got to CO, UA offered him the job but he turned it down. The rest is history, From Worst to First.

He would be a good catch for any airline.

[411A]

Without a doubt, a first class guy. And UAL needs ALL the help it can get.

[Shore Guy]

In thirty years around this business, I have just two management heroes (U.S)

Herb Kelleher (SWA): A really charasmatic person with a simple business plan. And as they have been demonstrating, works in good times and bad. One of the key concepts that other carriers have not quite broken the code on - when Southwest comes into a city, they do not just serve existing demand. They create demand by their price structure and frequencies.

Gordon Bethune (CAL) - In a way what he did was tougher - turn a truly horrid carrier into one of the best. That is a very difficult thing to do in this business. Turning a company that both the employees and customers disliked into one that consistently ranks high in surveys was/is quite an accomplishment.

I can see why UAL would love to have Gordan and his team on the property. Would be a great loss to CAL.

[Ignition Override]

Continental employee morale, over the last several years with Mr Bethune on board, has appeared to be very good. Maybe better than at some of the larger US airlines. I've enjoyed flights on them.

If Mr. Bethune had followed the Frank Lorenzo style of airline management (harsh dismemberment=more short-term cash flow for upstreaming into a holding company, "TAC" and "Jet Capital" etc...), where would Continental Airlines be today? Would it have survived?

Don't forget: declaring war on your employees in the 80s while voiding all labor contracts by filing Chapter 11 + cutting many salaries by about 40-50% do not equal a quality airline. Otherwise, they probably would not have needed Mr Bethune's help. Recent history is much more difficult to re-write when most of the bloodied survivors are still around.

Tomorrow is my first (and last!) operation on my "6 o'clock", and am dreading the recovery. My posts over the next two weeks or so could appear to be the lunatic ravings of someone on real drugs (Would music by 'Pink Floyd' or 'Yes' help the pain? Wish I had some Uriah Heep too "I done the ranchers daughter and...").

Wish I were kidding. :(

I wish good luck to United, and also USAirways.

[OO-AOG]

Don't expect any new United's orders for Airbus if it's true...

[GlueBall]

With 48% of revenues eaten up by employe salaries, the company will implode. Creighton, the CEO called out of retirement, has seen the writing on the wall and has already bailed out ...after only a few months in office.

And for a corrupt board of directors to have given Goodwin, the ex CEO, a 6.3 Million "Golden Parachute" severence package, speaks of a compensation philosophy that is not commensurate with carrier operating profits.

Employe ownership is a failure. A management conflict of owners managing themselves is equivalent to incest. Without strong surgery, UAL is going down.:(