3 Links I Love: Air Berlin Restructures, American’s CIO, So Long Vin

Air Berlin, American, Continental

Far-reaching restructuring of airberlin to deliver long-term growthAir Berlin
The long-rumored restructuring is here. Air Berlin, long shredding money, is going to remake itself into something that… probably will just lose more money. It’ll shrink, sending up to 40 airplanes to Lufthansa (most under Eurowings, some under Austrian) and those will be operated by Air Berlin crews. This helps Lufthansa lose more money too, but I suppose it keeps a defense out there to stave off true low cost carriers from eating Lufthansa’s lunch. (The markets will suck too much for them to bother.)

But back to Air Berlin, it’s going to split off its leisure business (how it actually got started back in the day) into a separate unit which it’ll probably look to sell. What’s left (after massive layoffs) is a carrier focusing on business markets from Dusseldorf and Berlin. Good luck.

Links I Love

How American Airlines Is Piloting New TechnologyD Magazine
This is more about American CIO Maya Leibman than anything else, but it’s a worthwhile read.

Vin Scully for Continental Airlines – Circa 1970YouTube
This weekend marks the final three Dodger games to ever be called by Vin Scully. It’s the end of a 60+ year announcing career that began when they were back in Brooklyn. It’s just incredible. It was hard for me to find a way to give my own little tribute to Vin Scully until I ran across this video in the Eye on L.A. Aviation newsletter.

So long Vin. It’s a sad weekend.

Get Cranky in Your Inbox!

The airline industry moves fast. Sign up and get every Cranky post in your inbox for free.

10 comments on “3 Links I Love: Air Berlin Restructures, American’s CIO, So Long Vin

  1. Quite sure the “pub” was gone by the time I was flying in the meatball planes in the 1980’s. Growing up my father would tell stories about how great flying was in the “good old days” and the pub was one of those stories. Crazy that they were doing that on relatively short hops from LA to Denver, Chicago & Houston. Today on much longer routes you’re lucky to get a couple extra inches of legroom in a 737 or 320. Sigh…

  2. I never liked the DC-10 but loved Continental’s Pub. Vin Skully must be the best of all time. What a life story…always 100% true to his colors which of course were Dodger blue. He will be missed.

  3. The pub on the CO DC-10 was there because of the problems with seats in the back of the aircraft. The Early DC-10’s had an issue with the autopilot that produced a very pronounced Dutch Roll, which could make the ride in the back of the aircraft very unpleasant. Douglas eventually did sort out the autopilot problem and that got rid of the Dutch roll. The Pub disappeared soon after. AA had Piano bar in the back of the DC10 for a while for exactly the same reason, and it also disappeared shortly after the autopilot was sorted out.

  4. Continental was a mainly western U.S. carrier in those days.
    http://www.departedflights.com/CO103171.html

    Vin Scully was a master story teller. His style resembled a conversation one would have at home. On the other hand, Harry Caray’s storytelling style was more like having a conversation over a few cold ones in a bar. Sports broadcasting doesn’t have the personalities it did in the past.

  5. I get depressed every time I read an article about Maya Leibman that reminds me that she is already married….

    1. Jose – The bottom of each email tells you how to unsubscribe. Just reply with nothing but the word “unsubscribe” and it’ll take you off.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Cranky Flier