1 WINTER 2001 Welcom e To The 21st Century V olum e 1 Issue 2 employees it would mean a public relations coup of the century AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE for Continental. I further agreed that the strike was over, that he had won, that it was time to put all that behind us and together DEATH OF fight the real enemy. Dick Ferris and United Airlines! Lorenzo stated he felt good about our conversation and that FR ONTIER AIR LINES the Frontier Captains should keep their seats if something was to work out. I stated that the earlier letter sent to Burr threatening by Captain Billy Walker (Part 2) dire consequences if he dared consider a merger with Lorenzo In ALPA's defense, Duffy could have done little with the way be ignored. I wanted to see all of our pilots receive a fair and the Airline Pilots Association is structured with MEC autonomy. equitable integration. Certainly, with Roger Hall’s continued reassurances ALPA na- While Lorenzo made no further commitments he left me with tional could do little more than pressure the UAL MEC. a sense of promise. Amazing, here I was asking the very man, I The following day, one year ago today, August 28th, 1986 the had joined to fight against ever owning Frontier, for a job and to UAL MEC listened to my appeal, turned their brotherly backs, buy him dinner. Steak, no less. and have ignored the plight of the Frontier family to this day. Shortly, we were involved with the Prince of Darkness, John Certainly, there were concerned UAL individuals expressing Adams, Vice President Human Resources, Continental Airlines their dismay. They, along with the rest of us found it hard to in negotiations for what was to become the "Job Preservation believe their management would be so stupid as to toss the and Litigation Agreement." golden nugget, they perceived Frontier to be, to the likes of In roughly 4 weeks through night and day efforts we produced Francisco Lorenzo. a very complicated document that was described by Adams in What then is UAL ALPA's guilt? They simply failed to judge meetings with the Frontier employees as "fair and equitable." If their management’s motives and misjudged the FAL employees would be willing to their business acumen. For by throwing waive their bankruptcy claims against away Frontier's biggest assets, the employ- LA RRY V A NNO Y Frontier and PeoplExpress along with ees, (as UAL V.P. Monte Lazerus cited in a Continental and ALPA they would be bald faced lie to the Denver City Council) M U RD ERED guaranteed a job. The pilots would "keep they ended up the big loser by losing the their seats." "Captains would be Captains material goods as well. They actually cata- IN A RIZ O NA ! - First Officers would be First Officers." pulted Lorenzo into 1st place, controlling Of course an arbitrator would decide the well over 22% of the U.S. domestic market S ee page 7 ultimate seniority integration if the two share. pilot groups were unwilling or unable to Incredible! resolve their positions. What a long plane ride home. Instead of being met by a lynch In dealing with Adams we saw a tough, but fair minded man. mob, I was greeted like a conquering hero. How enigmatic! We saw a man who had a reputation for dealing through omis- Yet the devastation felt by the Frontier family can only be sion rather than out-and-out lying. While deceptive practices appreciated by folks like ONA, Braniff, Transamerica, Transtar, with Lorenzo's operation was common knowledge, we felt that, Eastern, Midway and the others sickened by the effects of while Adams was trying to stack the deck in favor of the "scabs," incompetent management. we would get a fair shake. With the blood of the Frontier employees oozing onto the While rumors that Judges had been bought, a Arbitrator would United Airlines ramp there was only one option available. not act improperly especially if we used the strike method of I still had a phone number given me a year earlier. I placed a choosing one. call to Mr. Lorenzo. The call was placed just prior to the annual Wrong, again! Labor Day Parade in Denver. Ironically, the Frontier unions We were amazed with the speed the Lorenzo machine moved marching that day won 1st place. The only real win since before in achieving the "JPA" through employee ratification. Then Al Feldman left to run Continental. dismayed at how they would drag their feet in implementing the Lorenzo was not in, but returned my call a couple of days later. small things of relative low cost already agreed to. Yet, many of Again, a cordial positive visit. I confirmed the fact I owed him these things were important to the individuals involved. a steak dinner for the casual bet made regarding the outcome of It would take pages to outline the shabby operation former the PEX merger with FAL. I allowed that our position had Frontier people were now experiencing. Frontier, even in her changed and I was not attempting to try posturing. But, if we toughest time, did a much better job servicing the customer, could work a "fair and equitable" arrangement for the Frontier (Continued on page 2) 2 maintaining equipment and walking tall. Where Frontier aircraft cannibalism so prevalent in our professional society today. flew 12 hours daily, Continental was utilizing them half that. No reflection on great airlines like Hawaiian, Southwest and Naturally that made Frontier junior Captains fly as First Offi- America West, but based on the most stringent measure of cers. Maybe an arbitrator would consider this in future arbitra- take-offs and landings Frontier holds the safest record in the tion proceedings. world wide history of civil aviation. Frontier flew from coast to In any event Continental did well through the coast, from Canada through Mexico, in and out of idiocy of Ferris and his nefarious bunch. They The FRONTIER NEWS is pub- mountain valleys day and night in the worst of acquired all the assets United gleaned from Frontier lished quarterly and dedicated weather with mostly older aircraft and poor navi- except a couple MD-80 delivery slots already dis- to ex-employees, friends, family gational aids, safely. Billions of miles carrying posed of. and fans of the “old” Frontier millions of passengers, safely. Frontier lost a Airlines which died on August However, Continental, in their desire to protect single revenue passenger killed when an old DC-3 24, 1986. It is a non-profit the CAL strike "scabs," blew what would have been lost a battle to low level icing on approach into operation. All income goes into a tremendous public relations coup. keeping the NEWS going. Miles City, Montana over 23 years ago. On October 2nd, 1986 the pilots in attendance at Opinions expressed in this This concludes the article written by Billy in 1987 the meeting describing the ‘plus and minus' of the newsletter are those of the au- on the first anniversary of Frontier’s death. Next JPA unanimously directed me to sign that agree- thor and not the editor or the issue features an epilogue wriiten by him in ment. Following the initial ratification 492 pilots publication. Publishing dates February, 1999. out of 558 former Frontier pilots elected to fly for are October for Fall, January for Continental. Winter, April for Spring and July for Summer. Articles and One year later...less than 390 former FAL pilots photos are welcomed and sub- are on the Continental seniority list. When can ject to editing and space re- aviation history show such an exodus. Possibly in quirements. We cannot pay for the 30's with E.L. Cord's operation. Maybe today such items but will give credit with the exodus at Eastern. as appropriate. All submissions Actually, there are several of the aforementioned should deal with the “old” 390 who are on a medical leave of absence. There- Frontier Airlines. Especially fore the probable number of FAL pilots flying for welcomed are stories of per- Continental would be less. One more glaring exam- sonal experiences with a hu- ple is in the perception that existed just following morous slant. All airline em- ployees have a treasure trove of our being blasted out of existence by United. There such stories. Please share them would be hardly a FAL employee who did not with the rest of the FLamily. blame all of ALPA for the sins of UAL ALPA. We also want to publicize ALL However, with the "promotion" of ALPA or any “old” Frontier gatherings. Be union by Lorenzo in his meager efforts to offer sure to notify us with details: moldy carrots to the CAL pilots, many are re- place, date, contact and so Former ALEA members with questions assessing their earlier views as of August 28, 1986. forth. They will be published in What exists in the way of hope for the Frontier the “Timetable”. Subscriptions about their Frontier pensions can contact Family? There is some hope, albeit limited, that are $10 per year. Text ads are Principal Insurance Company at $5 for 20 words, $15 for a busi- 1-800-944-8631 Ex. 4345 there will be some if not total re-arbitration of what ness card, $20 for 1/8th page has to be a totally unfair and "intellectually dishon- and $40 for a quarter page. Tell There are several options for drawing your est" award. Other avenues of legal review are others in the FLamily about the pension including a 10 year roll over to apparently being pursued as well.