It's tough times all around in the airline industry, but there was an interesting nugget in Continental's announcement of cutbacks: their CEO and President will borth forgo their salaries and incentive programs for the rest of the year.
Setting aside the sad truth that executive pay in the US is hideously inflated compared to Europe, I like the gesture of this move. Sure, the bigwigs aren't going to suffer all that much compared to furloughed or laid off employees, but it's at least acknowledging the situation.
Also lost in the shuffle of these capacity cutbacks is that many airlines are retiring their least fuel efficient planes, including American's geriatric MD-80s, United's 747s and 737-300s, and now Continental's 737-300s. Luckily, Northwest hasn't done anything as rash as ditching their DC-9s. Perhaps they'll turn them into living museums of how air travel "used to be", kind of a colonial Williamsburg of the skies. Churned butter for your roll, sir?
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