Originally Posted by
HeathrowGuy
Gordon was excellent at the operational aspects of running an airline, and certainly was colorful, but he fell short on the financial side -- Continental was saddled with sizeable debt servicing obligations and depleted cash reserves that Kellner and his team have had to address through the most difficult period in the history of civil aviation.
It is ironic, though, that through most of his tenure, Bethune's financial guy was none other than Larry Kellner, who was the architect of the capital program that resulted in the debt you describe (by the way, the debt was, on balance, a good thing since it allowed CAL to modernize its fleet, one its great assets).
Also, no one is disputing that times are hard for the airline industry now. The issue is the kind of unimaginative response Kellner has had to meet the challenge.