Timbo

I don't know if Mo'Ron was being groomed in 1983, but I do know when I was hired in 1985, Dave Garrett was the CEO and Delta had NEVER, in their entire history, lost money for a single quarter, let alone a whole year.

Mo'Ron was made CEO to replace Dave Garrett, picked over Hollis Harris in about Sept. of 1987. At the time, the word was the BOD thought Hollis was "Too Old". Mo'Ron bought Pan Am going into a recession and Gulf War 1, in 1991, and Delta started losing $3 Million a month, flying empty A300's from JFK to Europe. When I talked to some Pan Am guys on a layover, they couldn't believe Ron paid $400 Million for the transatlantic routes that put Pan Am into bankruptcy. They said the real money was in their South American routes, which Mo'Ron didn't buy.

That's why Dave Garrett has his name is painted on the side of one of our 777's, while Ron's name is painted inside the #3 urinal in the ATL Pilot lounge, and Grinstien's name in painted inside the #5 commode.

Hollis left shortly thereafter for CAL and then later, to World. From listening to both of them speak to us new hires, I really wish the Board had picked Hollis over Mo'Ron. Hollis was smart about the business and liked pilots. Ron was an idiot and he HATED pilots!

Grinstien came to us from Western in 1987, but nobody had ever heard from him until he was made head of the BOD. How that idiot ended up as the head of the BOD is beyond me! But he is the jackass who picked Leo Mullen to be our new CEO. Leo The CEO hired Fred Reid from Lufthansa, and the two of them ordered over 500 "Self Financing" RJ's, and the race was on.

Remember Jerry's Simpli Fares? I think it was his plan to put DAL into Bankruptcy as quickly as possible, sell tickets at half price, make up the difference in volume. Problem was, our break even load factor was 66%. When you cut prices 50%, you can't sell enough tickets to get 132% load factor, no airplane holds 132%.

buzzpat

Jimmy Fallon's the best! I'm a long time fan. He'll do great. Give him a week or two and people will forget about Leno altogether.

Timbo

I did enjoy the U2 acoustic set at the end.

Very cool that Bono handed him a new red Rickenbacker!

I want one!

galaxy flyer

Was it Mo'Ron that had something like Project 7.5 trying to get DL's CASM down to 7.5 cents? I used had back the peanuts to the F/As and tell 'em it was contribution to 7.5.

GF

Skyone

Outstanding post and history. I was on the MEC for a number of those years dealing with Allen and his 7.5 fiasco. There is NO question in my mind he despised pilots. Actually witnessed him address the MEC during the '86 negotiations pointing his boneyard finger, slamming his fist on the table and yelling at the collective body. He undid decades of good will in one year. Read AIRLINE WITHOUT A PILOT, for a concise history up to JG, the second biggest detriment to Delta in its history.

And remember there was a CAL/DAL merger ready to take place until the CEO of CAL called Delta's management "as dumb as a box of rocks"...talking about Leo.

Bucking Bar

Agreed .

badflaps

Ouch! It is just as painful now as it was then. Somewhere in Ron's attic there is a barf covered logbook...

n9810f

Absolutely perfect plane to overfly Japan from the US. United is way ahead of us on this.

Northwest had the foresight went it ordered the 787 to do much the same. Building A was looking at SEA-SYD and similar routes.

The flaw in Richard's no new modern widebody aka the 787 is the 767-300ER's can't do much of the over-Japan flying, right? That's why we ordered the 10 333's I believe. But that's still not enough. It's a major disadvantage.

Tinpusher007

If "proven technology" airplanes is his thing, isn't it kind of ironic that he placed the original order for NWA prior to the merger? Or was that the other guy???

Timbo

Yup. He decided we needed to lower our CASM to match Value Jet's. Hmm...I wonder where Value Jet got the cheap DC9's to start up in the first place?

Oh, that's right, from Mo'Ron. (actually from the leasing co. Mo'Ron sold them to, he should have kept them like NW did, or made beer cans out of them so no new start up could use them against us)

I skipped over the whole 7.5 thing when typing last night (sorry sir, I was watching Jimmy Fallon!).

By 1993, it was obvious Mo'Ron couldn't figure out -how- to run the airline, even though he'd worked at Delta since College. So he brought in a consulting group to investigate the operation, and give recommendations. The name of that group was McKinsey Associates.

http://www.mckinsey.com/About_us

After a 90 day review, McKinsey's people told him to fire everyone except the pilots and F/A's. A Chief Pilot riding on our jumpseat was coming from the "Big Meeting" with Ron and the rest of flight ops, where he laid out his 7.5 plan. He was very depressed when he told us what was about to go down.

At that meeting, Ron said McK Ass. told him, "You have rampers and cabin cleaners working for you, making $40,000yr, and you are giving them retirement and health care benefits?! (a lot of money in 1993 dollars) Those are Minimum Wage Jobs! Get RID of EVERYONE you can, and hire contractors to do those menial, minimum wage jobs!"

Back then, just about everybody you met on a Delta airplane, worked for Delta. Cabin cleaners, baggage loaders, certainly all the mechanics. If you wanted to work for Delta (other than Pilots and F/A's), you had to start on the ramp or cleaning cabins, and work your way up. BUT...Delta had never laid anyone off. Once you were hired, you were in the Delta Family, for life. You may remember the Delta Employees took up a collection to pay for the first 767? The Spirit of Delta. The reason they did was because in 1981, when the Air Traffic Controllers went on strike, all the other Majors laid of thousands of workers. Delta didn't. As a Thank You, the employees voluntarily contributed money to buy the Spirit of Delta in 1983.

Anyone remember the day Ron walked through the Delta General Offices and fired 20% of the life long, loyal Delta people? After he did this, the AJC did an interview with him about employee moral, in light of the firings. That's when Ron made the infamous quip: "If moral suffers, So Be It!"

McK was a huge fan of, and on the cutting edge of a new business model called;

Outsourcing.

Guess who worked for McK at the time? Leo Mullen. During McK's investigation of Delta's operations, and subsequent report to the BOD is where Jerry met Leo.

That's why Jerry picked Leo to replace Ron in 1997, when Ron's 10yr. contract was up, and that's when Leo started outsourcing...everything!