Another Wald Wild Pitch
Hat tip to an anonymous reader... in that NYT
story (here
at IHT for now, or see my previous post), the Times's Matthew Wald quoted a man
he never spoke to, in classic Times/Jayson Blair/Charlie Le Duff style. But
that's not his only howler in the
story.
Wald: "But the extreme belt- tightening and wave of bankruptcies have been largely limited to the United States."
... and this page at Wikipedia has dozens more, surpassed only by this page at justplanes.com (warning: loads like molasses). Past the "read more" jump, I look at another aspect of Wald's claims.
Wald: "But the extreme belt- tightening and wave of bankruptcies have been largely limited to the United States."
- Ansett New Zealand, 2001.
- Swissair, Swiss national carrier, 2001 (still unresolved as of 12/31/2005).
- Sabena, Belgian national carrier. 2001 (still costing creditors in 2006). (the trustee was named Christiaan van Buggenhout, and you'd be buggenhout too if you had their financials; they blamed it all on Swissair and 9/11).
- Air Canada, bankrupt 2003, emerged 2004.
- Laker Airways, Carribean, 2004
- Lauda Air, Austria, 2000-04 (wreckage absorbed by arch-competitor Austrian)
- Air Atlantique, France, 2004
- Aero Lloyd, Germany, 2003
... and this page at Wikipedia has dozens more, surpassed only by this page at justplanes.com (warning: loads like molasses). Past the "read more" jump, I look at another aspect of Wald's claims.
The next question that arises is... are US
airline bankruptcies totally novel, as Wald
implies?
Year filed Corporation Name
1982 Braniff International Corp. (1982)
1983 Continental Airlines (1983)
1984 Air Florida System Inc.
1986 Frontier Holdings Inc.
1989 Braniff Inc. (1989)
1989 Eastern Airlines Inc.
1990 Continental Airlines (1990)
1991 America West Airlines Inc.
1991 Midway Airlines Inc.
1991 Pan Am Corp.
1992 Trans World Airlines, Inc. (1992)
1995 Trans World Airlines, Inc. (1995)
2000 Fine Air Services Corp.
2000 Kitty Hawk, Inc.
2000 Tower Air, Inc.
2001 Midway Airlines Corp (2001)
2001 Trans World Airlines, Inc. (2001)
2002 UAL Corporation (United Airlines)
2002 US Airways, Inc. (2002)
2003 Hawaiian Airlines Inc.
2004 ATA Holdings Corp.
2004 US Airways Group, Inc. (2004)
2005 Delta Air Lines, Inc.
2005 FLYi, Inc.
2005 Northwest Airlines Corporation
Hmmm... maybe not, eh? It's a hard business, as anybody in it at any level can tell you (if you're not a Times reporter who arrives on location with the story already framed to fit the approved meme). I see this as a slightly increased trend since 9/11 -- predictable. But it was certainly present beforehand, as clusters of failures in the 1980s and 1990s show.
I pulled this list from the bankrupcty database at http://lopucki.law.ucla.edu/bankruptcy_research.asp and note that at least one significant 1990s US bankruptcy is missing: Southern Air Transport, a one-time CIA proprietary that, after being cut loose, ultimately failed to make a go of it as a cargo airline. (That's funny, because the agency's airlines were the one enterprise in government that ever did turn a profit with any consistency). And where's Midwest Express? It's possible some airlines liquidated as going concerns and did not have to file Chapter 7 or 11 paperwork, which would keep them off that list at UCLA Law.
Anyway, it's hard to conclude that Wald made any serious effort to research his story. I don't know how long he took to work on the story, but this is a half hour's work, without picking up a phone.
Year filed Corporation Name
1982 Braniff International Corp. (1982)
1983 Continental Airlines (1983)
1984 Air Florida System Inc.
1986 Frontier Holdings Inc.
1989 Braniff Inc. (1989)
1989 Eastern Airlines Inc.
1990 Continental Airlines (1990)
1991 America West Airlines Inc.
1991 Midway Airlines Inc.
1991 Pan Am Corp.
1992 Trans World Airlines, Inc. (1992)
1995 Trans World Airlines, Inc. (1995)
2000 Fine Air Services Corp.
2000 Kitty Hawk, Inc.
2000 Tower Air, Inc.
2001 Midway Airlines Corp (2001)
2001 Trans World Airlines, Inc. (2001)
2002 UAL Corporation (United Airlines)
2002 US Airways, Inc. (2002)
2003 Hawaiian Airlines Inc.
2004 ATA Holdings Corp.
2004 US Airways Group, Inc. (2004)
2005 Delta Air Lines, Inc.
2005 FLYi, Inc.
2005 Northwest Airlines Corporation
Hmmm... maybe not, eh? It's a hard business, as anybody in it at any level can tell you (if you're not a Times reporter who arrives on location with the story already framed to fit the approved meme). I see this as a slightly increased trend since 9/11 -- predictable. But it was certainly present beforehand, as clusters of failures in the 1980s and 1990s show.
I pulled this list from the bankrupcty database at http://lopucki.law.ucla.edu/bankruptcy_research.asp and note that at least one significant 1990s US bankruptcy is missing: Southern Air Transport, a one-time CIA proprietary that, after being cut loose, ultimately failed to make a go of it as a cargo airline. (That's funny, because the agency's airlines were the one enterprise in government that ever did turn a profit with any consistency). And where's Midwest Express? It's possible some airlines liquidated as going concerns and did not have to file Chapter 7 or 11 paperwork, which would keep them off that list at UCLA Law.
Anyway, it's hard to conclude that Wald made any serious effort to research his story. I don't know how long he took to work on the story, but this is a half hour's work, without picking up a phone.
Posted: Sunday - March 19, 2006 at 07:32 AM
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