In order to download Charlie Rose podcasts to iTunes for transfer to an iPod, you must have iTunes installed. If you do, please click the following link to download the podcast for this interview:
itpc://www.charlierose.com/view/itunes/12228
Otherwise, close this window to continue viewing.
Close
Page 1 of 1
Page 1 of 1
Cindy1968 04/24/2012 01:53 PM Report
I think that whatever Bob Crandall did, he did for the success of AA and did nothing anyone else would not have done. I hope it's true that he said he would come back to AMR.
jinxandme 03/26/2012 01:12 AM Report
Regardless of what anyone thinks about Bob Crandall, I'll always believe that he conspired with Carl Icahn to destroy TWA. Bob Crandall and American Airlines had everything to gain and nothing to loose by that tragic event in commercial aviation history.
Max83 03/21/2012 04:23 PM Report
Thank you kssd5 and Ross787 for your comments. It is good to hear this positive feedback about Mr. Crandall directly from the front lines of the industry, and it is very inspiring to me to see how much wisdom both of you have.
Ross787 03/21/2012 08:59 AM Report
Charlie,
Thank you for your valuable and insightful interviews. I think they should be a mandatory study material for politicians, business and labor leaders!
Sadly we both know that will be an impossible task to mandate. (Like stopping all wars and famine.) We are simply not that intelligent enough!
As one of those laborers whom vilified Bob Crandall for years, I would have never thought I would agree with him on so many issues. However, we have both grown older and perhaps a little wiser! :-)
The only subject I don't agree with Mr. Crandall is that American and other airlines did not have to go into bankruptcy to control cost. There are more humane ways to deal with that.
Unfortunately, airline management with a few exceptions (as with the former CEOs of Japan Airlines or SouthWest) would never consider those options!
The modern CEO can no longer look beyond his own bank accounts. And we no longer have " aviation romantics" such as the late Robert Six of Continental running airlines. Instead we treat aviation industry in this country like the bastard child, but expect it to grow into a strong, smart and healthy individual!
Captain Ross "Rusty" Aimer
(UAL Ret.)
CEO
Aero Consulting Experts
Los Angeles, CA
kssd5 03/18/2012 02:53 PM Report
Bob Crandall you have been vindicated. As a 25 year Flight Attendant for American I can tell you we all stand around in the galleys and reminisce about the good old days at American with Bob Crandall in charge!!!!
Gelles 03/17/2012 08:17 PM Report
If you and I had been President, and we had had it explained to us, that Boeing had to provide some jobs in nations where it sold its airplanes, and that the USA had to use some maintenance providers in nations where we were free to make money by being partners in global aviation and the rest of the modern economy, we would have asked about the total picture.
We would have questioned the idea of low cost suppliers of things all people may buy.
The explanation would have said low cost of production, including lowest wages for excellent performance of labor (which may involve knowing facts that not really possible to know,) is a first principle.
We would have asked about balanced global employment, including defense of our own workers and economic common purpose, as a first principle also.
We would have applied the Golden Rule, and we would have protected the economic outcomes of our neighbors (next door and around the world) as though their job and outcome was no less important than our own.
With that understanding burned into our brain, the race to the bottom would not be possible.
What would we have put in place different from what Congress and the President are doing ?
We would have paid attention to demand as much as we pay to supply. Therefore, full employment and high labor costs would be first principles in advanced industrial nations.
Where imports were concerned, they would be planned to allow for protected incomes that moved science and technology to every corner of earth where labor was well rewarded and no advanced labor force was threatened with lower standards.
This could not be done under free trade and laissez faire.
Our President would have discussed the problem truthfully, the way he approaches war and peace.
The planning required to have successfully moved Asia to where it is now, and to have sold most of their output to themselves, is less complicated than the plan to save my life more than a decade ago.
I had a quintuple bypass. Global trade needed war time economic growth with peace time tools for matching supply to need and matching demand to supply.
The people we have elected to Congress and installed in our business universities should have their pay tied to the pay for labor that produces all we all consume.
Until we have an honest President we will never have an honest congressman or an honest teacher in any school.
It is not too late for a system that recognizes our need for nearly-infinite supply AND a definite supply of matching demand.
Our current systems are doomed from day one when we abandon money creation to a system that has no plan to perform in the public interest.
There are no taxpayers alive whose money can supply what we need. There are only workers who ought to vote themselves control of gov't money spending to maximize full employment and maximize their own and their neighbor's standard of living.
To make the system simple, excess money spent ought to be saved in inflation protected systems -- not taxed away as though it were something you can eat or wear. Savings become an overflow channel and unemployment or unwanted supply contractions are never experienced.
We ought to put cost accounting in charge and profit and loss accounting in the back seat of the car. We ought to use only equity investments and debt only where it works and can easily be adjusted in everyone's real interest. Unpayable debt is a cancer in our system.
If we do not create some new think tanks with the help of the University of Missouri Kansas City, the New School in NYC, Bard University Economists, Singularity University, and others, to educate MIT, Harvard, Stanford and the rest, we are doomed.
If we do not introduce educational games and systems to recruit all our gifted children we are doomed.
If we do not stop the hate and start to cooperate with each other make competition a blessing not a curse, we are doomed.
Enough ranting. Have a bite and take a rest.
SharkswithfrikingLazers 03/17/2012 04:09 AM Report
Yes I agree, it is stupid:
50K to 100K jobs--paying $75K--LOST by sending maintenance abroad. AND the FAA does not have the staff to inspect oversees.
Yes, please do NOT send maintenance overseas without proper oversight.
Yes, please bring back to America 100,000 jobs that pay on average $75,000.
SharkswithfrikingLazers 03/17/2012 04:03 AM Report
Charlie asks, What is the biggest misconception?
The biggest misconception we are told is 'that airlines aren’t telling the truth and giving the information.'
Airlines DO NOT tell the truth unless they benefit--few mileage seats are available (17.5 TRILLION unredeemed miles, are you kidding me?) , little truth at the gate when there is a problem (as was discussed), and then of course we have the nickel and dime fee schedule which is not honest.
All this of course is after you have passed through the suspected terrorist walk through (guilty until proven innocent you know).
Charlie, allow me: "Flying is fun" is the biggest misconception.
Gelles 03/15/2012 07:42 PM Report
Social Flights sounds interesting and promising as a way to use data and systems to organize an alternative way to fly with less crowding and more class for people poorly served today by corporate private craft and local air fields. I, for one, would like to see them subsidized (if they ask for same) to create a lot more opportunities for middle class people to get a better deal than big business offers us and big government has turned into a nightmare (sometimes) because they have not used data systems effectively to allow 99.9% of the flying public to be registered to fly without any inconvenience because suicide terrorists are able to scare the pants off governments with no talent or imagination to protect us better than they do for virtually no money at all. Imagine, if you will, every aircraft seat, before take off, and every gate you pass before you board, with really high tech scanners that would filter out every would be hi-jacker, with zero percent evasion. The cost of such seats and gates would be zero when viewed as essential employment of unemployed or inefficiently employed consumers.
Seats and gates would be looking for weapons, explosives and poisons of a sophisticated nature. Over time, these WEP's would get harder to detect. Other approaches would be necessary. It might be that every person on earth likely to be a suicide hi-jacker would have to in custody or the grave. That would take a different solution to the problem. But the point is, the solution would never bother the potential passenger whose chance of being dangerous is minimal.
Meanwhile, the real problem we have, as a society, is to minimize high speed travel to instances where it is really necessary. A slow boat to china for almost all of us is preferable to fast travel for millions, even billions of of ordinary people. Bungee jumping and cliff flying winged jump suits are an economical satisfaction of the need for speed by slow travelers over real distances .
After all, is not a real French Restaurant in the neighborhood the best way to solve the airline problem?
vongleichent 03/15/2012 11:12 AM Report
Lufthansa is a great airline, but there are a lot more of them. The middle eastern airlines are definitely on the rise Emirates, and Etihad. So fare my best experience has been with Singapore Airline.
Max83 03/15/2012 12:57 AM Report
Hello Dan,
Social Flights looks like a very interesting and promising business model. Thank you for sharing.
I checked out your Bio
https://www.socialflights.com/?pg=team_reammore&type=m&mem_id=7
and found your other website on The Ingenesist Project http://www.ingenesist.com/
That is the American innovation I was talking about below :-)
Seattle has always been a great place for innovations and innovator, no surprise you are based out of Seattle.
All the best to you and your projects.
drobles 03/14/2012 05:39 PM Report
This is an extraordinary interview on a very important issue.
However, let me suggest that you look at some of the amazing innovations coming up through the cracks in the floor on the race to the bottom.
The interview suggested that there is no competitor for the airlines except high-speed rail. This is not entirely true; Social Flights is a new company that can be most simply described as a ride sharing system for private aircraft. Today, we have 90 private operators with a fleet of 500 jets and a membership of 14,000 people all looking to bypass the dysfunctional airline industry. We recently launched service between Nashville, Branson, Austin, Milwaukee, and many other cities that have been left nearly stranded by non-stop service.
Every day we sign up new partners in hospitality, ground services, events, across a wide variety of verticals from entertainment to corporate travel to event organizers all trying to interact with our platform. We are growing as fast as we possibly can.
There is a great amount of aircraft inventory becoming available and 5000 airports in small communities who reject the idea of being stranded by the airlines. We are in the midst of a remarkable revolution in air service.
Think about it: a hub airport does nothing more than sort people and planes. But Social Flights can sort people and planes with data. Social media used to be a marketing platform but more and more it is becoming a way for people to organize themselves in new ways.
Bring us on the show or feature our company, you will be amazed at the thought leadership and organization behind this - hundreds of operators cooperating instead of competing. Imagine when we start competing with the AAs and Delta's? That may not be too far off.
Dan Robles
Chief Innovation Officer
Social Flights
Max83 03/14/2012 04:55 PM Report
Wow, what an enlightening interview. Two great guests. America needs these old schoolers and their wisdom, integrity and common sense to get back on track.
I sincerely hope some of their ideas get implemented in public policy.
The only way to make America great again is to focus on quality control and put Quality above Quantity and quick profits.
I am German, and we Germans are very quality orientated, and in times of crises the only way to succeed and reemerge is a focus on and dedication to Quality. That is why Germany is so successful and resilient during this current economic crises. Long term sustainability will ensure long term profitability. I am a supporter of the eco-social market economy model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-social_market_economy
as promoted by the Club of Rome.
European social traditions, quality control and environmentalism coupled with American innovation, industriousness and freedom I feel is a possible policy, but even more importantly so it is a mandatory one.
REMant 03/14/2012 12:09 PM Report
Much as I agree with the idea that deregulation in this case was bad, I can't believe anyone is still discussing this, because lousy as the airlines are, as crowded and decrepit as the planes are, it really hasn't been the total disaster everyone expected. I'm afraid I don't see either how everyone associated with the industry can be making money and the airlines, themselves, not. I certainly can't agree with the idea that the point of regulation should be protectionism.
There's way too much travel encouraged by its being undervalued, because underwritten, or rather undermined, by the Fed, as with so many other things we find falling apart. That's the reason for all the mergers, too. And since the govt is not doing the job on the air industry infrastructure either, as with highways, education and the postal service, the answer will have to be user fees. I don't think anymore blue-ribbon commissions are needed on the subject.
For myself, with all the crap going on, I doubt I will ever fly again, unless I can't book passage on a ship overseas, and I learned my lesson about American trains decades ago.