In my own view, it was not merely uncomfortable, it was intolerable. It might perhaps have been endurable for a two-hour flight but an eight-hour flight is a totally different matter.
— Judge Gareth Edwards QC, regards JMC's 29-inch seat pitch. The judge upheld a compensation award made to Brian Horan after he suffered deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) on his journey Manchester, England, to the Canadian ski resort of Calgary. Chester County Court, 17 April 2002.
You fucking academic eggheads! You don't know crap. You can't deregulate this industry. You're going to wreck it. You don't know a goddamn thing!
— Robert L. Crandall, CEO American Airlines, addressing a Senate lawyer prior to airline deregulation, 1977.
Deregulation will be the greatest thing to happen to the airlines since the jet engine.
— Richard Ferris, CEO United Airlines, 1976.
United has little to fear from numerous small competitors. We should be able to compete effectively by advertising our size, dependability, and experience, and by matching or beating their promotional tactics. . . . In a free environment, we would be able to flex our marketing muscles a bit and should not fear the treat of being nibbled to death by little operators.
— Richard Ferris, CEO United Airlines, 1976.
Total deregulation would allow anybody to fly any route, a situation that is unlikely ever to occur.
— New York Times Magazine, May 9, 1976.
No one expects Braniff to go broke. No major U.S. carrier ever has.
— The Wall Street Journal, 30 July 1980.
America, the land of the free, is turning itself into the land of the free ride. [U.S. airlines] are operating in protected markets. They are hoovering up public funds and they still can't make a profit.
— Rod Eddington, CEO British Airways, regards competing against so many bankrupt U.S. airlines, 23 September 2005.
If we went into the funeral business, people would stop dying.
— Martin R. Shugrue, Vice-chairman Pan Am.
If anybody ever flied to the Moon, the very next day Trippe will ask the Civil Aeronautics Board to authorize regular service.
— James M. Landis
Pan Am can go to hell.
— Alfred E. Kahn, Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board.
This is one hell of a good deal for United Airlines.
— Richard Ferris, Chairman United Airlines, after buying Pan Am's Far East route network.
It's a great day for TWA.
— William Compton, President Trans World Airlines Inc., on the day that U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson approved American Airlines' $200 million emergency financing plan, and cleared the way for the sale of America's longest-flying airline, 27 January, 2001.
If forced to travel on an airplane, try and get in the cabin with the Captain, so you can keep an eye on him and nudge him if he falls asleep or point out any mountains looming up ahead ...
— Mike Harding, 'The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac.'
There is not much to say about most airplane journeys. Anything remarkable must be disastrous, so you define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you're grateful.
— Paul Theroux, 'The Old Patagonian Express,' 1979.
I don't mind flying. I always pass out before the plane leaves the ground.
— Naomi Campbell, supermodel, 2000.
I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems they are wonderful things for other people to go on.
— Jean Kerr, 'The Snake Has All the Lines,' 1958.
Twenty-five per cent of the passengers of almost any aircraft show white knuckles on take-off.
— Colin Marshall, CEO British Airways.
Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.
— Captain Eric Moody, British Airways, passenger PA after flying through volcanic ash in a B-747.
The British Islands are small islands and our people numerically a little people. Their only claim to world importance depends upon their courage and enterprise, and a people who will not stand up to the necessity of air service planned on a world scale, and taking over thousands of aeroplanes and thousands of men from the onset of peace, has no business to pretend anything more than a second rate position in the world. We cannot be both Imperial and mean.
— H. G. Wells, minority report of the committee to study "the development and regulation after the war of aviation for civil and commercial purposes from a domestic, an imperial and an international stand-point," 1917.
It may be questioned whether civil aviation in England is to be regarded as one of those industries which is unable to stand on its own two feet, and is yet so essential to the national welfare that it must be kept alive at all costs.
— Major-General Sir Frederick Sykes, first Director of British Civil Aviation, 1919.
It was the first airplane . . . that could make money just by hauling passengers.
— C. R. Smith, president of American Airlines, regarding the DC-3. The DC-3 specifications were shaped by AA.
. . . It wasn't until the jet engine came into being and that engine was coupled with special airplane designs — such as the swept wing — that airplanes finally achieved a high enough work capability, efficiency and comfort level to allow air transportation to really take off.
— Joseph F. Sutter, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
We're going to make the best impression on the traveling public, and we're going to make a pile of extra dough just from being first.
— C. R. Smith, American Airlines, on the introduction of the Boeing 707, 'Forbes,' 1956.
Its operation in a world beset by fuel and energy crises makes no sense at all.
— Senator Cranston of California, regards the Concorde, 1974.
You can be in London at 10 o'clock and in New York at 10 o'clock. I have never found another way of being in two places at once.
— Sir David Frost, Concorde regular.
It is a magic aircraft . . . the pleasure of flying in it is almost a carnal one.
— Joelle Cornet-Templet, Air France's Chief Steward regards Concorde.
An aircraft which is used by wealthy people on their expense accounts, whose fares are subsidized by much poorer taxpayers.
— Denis Healey, British Labour Party, regards the Concorde.
Without doubt, Concorde died yesterday at the age of 31. All that will remain is the myth of a beautiful white bird.
— 'Le Figaro' editorial, the day after AF 4590 crashed at takeoff from Charles de Gaulle aerodrome, 26 July 2000.
For those of us who live in the shadow of this noisy monster, there aren't too many of us who are sorry to see it go.
— Anthony D. Weiner, Congressman for the 9th district of New York regards Concorde.
The Boeing 747 is the commuter train of the global village.
— H. Tennekes, 'The Simple Science of Flight,' 1996.
I don’t believe in being the launch customer for anything.
— Carl Michel, British Airways’ commercial director, regards the Airbus A3XX (which was eventually named the A380), February 2000.
We are pleased we haven't got one on order. It's too big an aircraft.
— Willie Walsh, CEO British Airways, regards the A380. Reported in AW&ST 21 November 2005.
We have focused on derivatives for several years, but when it's time to do a new airplane, it's time to do a new airplane.
— Michael B. Bair, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president for business strategy and development, announcing the 'Sonic Cruiser' (which was eventually canceled), 29 March, 2001.
There has always been a certain romanticism associated with the airline business. We must avoid its perpetuation at Eastern at all costs.
— Frank Borman
I'm not paid to be a candy ass. I'm paid to go and get a job done. I could have ended up with another job, but the job I ended up with was piecing together a bunch of companies that were all headed for the junk heap . . . . I've got to be the bastard who sits around Eastern Airlines and says, 'hey, we're losing $3 million a day or whatever the number is and bang, bang, bang, bang, what do you do?' So, some jobs are easier than others.
— Frank Lorenzo
We are long-term players in the industry. We're not just crazy and emotional. We try to be logical business managers.
— Frank Lorenzo
I can't imagine a set of circumstances that would produce Chapter 11 for Eastern.
— Frank Lorenzo
As a businessman, Frank Lorenzo gives capitalism a bad name.
— William F. Buckley
