The American Eagle: The Ascent of Bob Crandall and American Airlines [Hardcover]

Dan Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1993

A look at one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in airline history describes how American Airlines president Bob Crandall helped pull the airline back from the brink of bankruptcy and took it to the top.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1980 Crandall became CEO of American Airlines and inherited a world of problems. The DC-10 fleet was grounded, fuel costs and labor costs were out of control, and a strike threatened to make the general recession last indefinitely. Using Dallas/Fort Worth as a hub airport, Crandall guided American through deregulation, developed discounted air fares, and instituted a two-tier wage system in one of the most successful corporate turnarounds in history. Resourceful and competitive, he was also controversial and has been blamed for the demise of other airlines, most notably Braniff. A complete history of the years during which Crandall made American a highly successful and well-managed corporation, this book also presents an interesting history of SABRE, the computerized reservation system. Recommended for general collections.
- William A. McIntyre, N.H. Technical Coll. Lib., Nashua
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

An extravagantly adulatory appreciation of Bob Crandall, whose world-class executive talents have enabled American Airlines to survive, if not thrive. Drawing on apparently open access to his subject's company and its top brass, Reed (who covers commercial air transport for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) focuses on Crandall's career at American. After joining the carrier in 1973 (at age 38) as chief financial officer, Crandall took almost immediate wing, moving up through a succession of increasingly responsible posts to the presidency in 1980 and the chairmanship five years later. Along the way, Crandall contributed significantly to the development of a breakthrough computer-based reservation system that brought travel agents into the loop, helped American weather the storms of deregulation, and beefed-up so-called ``hub-and-spoke'' flight operations. A tough, innovative competitor, Crandall also settled price-fixing charges (stemming from an ill-advised phone conversation with his opposite number at Braniff) and incurred the enmity of organized labor by pioneering two-tier wage scales for pilots, mechanics, et al. But though he's a master of the game when it comes to aggressive expansion and controlling overhead expenses, Crandall has never had much luck in keeping fares at consistently profitable levels. Indeed, his vaunted Value Plan came an instant cropper last year. Reed nonetheless gives him an ``A'' for effort on this and a flock of other projects, all but ignoring the bleak realities facing airline operators in the unfriendly skies of global as well as domestic markets. Although Crandall is arguably the air-transport industry's dominant personality, the author fails to offer enough big-picture perspectives (e.g., indications that his subject may be fighting a losing battle) to raise the airline executive's curriculum vitae above the level of corporate hagiography. A wasted booking. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312086962
• ISBN-13: 978-0312086961
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brian Wayne Wells, Esquire, reviews "The American Eagle", January 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The American Eagle: The Ascent of Bob Crandall and American Airlines (Hardcover)

Dan Reed writes an organized and balanced story of American Airlines and the company's president, Robert Crandall. Bob Crandall was a innovative leader in the marketing and operation of United State's airlines.

Crandall used the SABRE computerized system of reservartions, the practice of gathering passengers in regional "hub" airports to fill big planes operating between major hubs and the frequent flyer programs to build American Airlines the nation's first airline during the years following the 1978 de-regulation of tha airline industry.

This is an exciting book which correctly predicted in 1993, that the great period of airline innovation may be ending. The only shortcoming in the book is that it was published too soon. In the fall of 1993, American's flight attendants went on strike which symbolized the real end of the period of turmoil and innovation which this book had predicted.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Neutrality, July 16, 2010

By 

UFMasters (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Eagle: The Ascent of Bob Crandall and American Airlines (Hardcover)

This book is a great book for informing the reader about how American Airlines got from the early 70's to the time the book was published. It speaks of how AA conducts its business and how they improved their network and the way business is conducted. With that being said, the book is just a drain on an airlines entusiasts time. The book is very repetative and very biased about American Airlines. This would have been a great book if the author didn't think of AA as the gods of the sky. The book speaks of AA's financial and route problems, but when the author compares the airlines to a competative airline, AA was always doing things better then the competition. No company is perfect, but I don't know why the author has to justify everything that AA has done wrong.