A good book, unfortuantly in the end tells how it all went wrong.

[sardinesnack]

“The profitable airline was divided by three. Geographical boundaries were established so that revenues could be credited to the appropriate division. The same system applied to costs generated within each of the three area’s. System wide costs for such items as advertising, fuel and flight crew on a market share basis. In any event the three Senior V.P./General Managers soon had the ground rules necessary to play the game, and play they did. Revenue, cost, and profit goals were set with monthly gatherings established to determine whether each division was meeting its target. These sessions were remarkable for the tons of figures required to account for ticket transactions between hundreds of points, to whom the revenue belonged, the cost associated with the sales, system-wide cost allocations, and all the other ingredients necessary to bake an airline cake. There was no agreement within the trio as to the accuracy or fairness of the cost and revenue allocations, and many post-meeting audits occurred. Record Keeping finally became so complex that a special team was established to keep score. However, if nothing else, the three division system gave a number of rising corporate officers a chance to star in their own production.”

(A Birds Eye View) Captain W.E. Dunkle