Meeting an Aviation Luminary

So I got home last night from Atlanta, and left this morning for a quick 1 day trip of 5 segments to honor my friend Jim who retires tonight as a 737 Captain for US Airways. I boarded the 11AM shuttle to DCA to meet my buddy, and I notice the guy right in front of me looks familiar. I am more intrigued by the hugs and kisses he gets from the female flight attendants upon boarding.

It turns out he's sitting right next to me (lucky since I had changed my seat upon check in). This mystery guest is none other than Ed Colodny, the former chairman/CEO of USAir. He was very interested in discussing the current state of the airline, and wanted to know more about the passenger advocacy group I chair (FFOCUS). We talked about many areas of the industry, and I discovered that he agrees with our main theory--that in order to have happy customers you need happy employees!

Based on the reception he received from the gate crew and flight crew, I think they might consider him one of the good ones.........

In any case, lucky me.

Y'all be good now.

wow, cool story!

That would be like me running into Bob Crandall or Gerald Arpey.

Ed Colodny is one of the friendliest former Airline CEO's you would ever want to meet and very down to earth as well. I have met him 4 times, twice while he was still running USAir (I believe he retired in 1990) and twice since and what a great guy to talk to. My favorite claim to fame of his career is he jointly along with Herb Kelleher of Southwest convincing Boeing to build an airplane known as the 737-300 which WN and US would later share launch customer status ! Art I am so glad you got to meet this airline industry legend who I believe is in his mid 80's and I know still travels alone. Thanks for posting Art !

LGA777

Ron,

Thanks for the note and the call yesterday afternoon.

By the way you didn't seem at all surprised to hear from me last night ;)

It turned out to be a memorable trip. We wound up having the water salute at CLT after all, and there were 4 bottles of champagne waiting for us at the gate after the last flight courtesy of US management in Tempe.

A 10+ in my book!

In the CLT club now waiting for my flight to LGA--arriving at 11:30.

Ron--did you tell Jay about my experience Wed night? He seemed to know an awful lot when I saw him Saturday AND yesterday.

Regards all,
Art

Nice that Mr. Colodny is still out and about. It was a much different sort of business prior to his 1990 retirement, before most of the turmoil currently associated with the industry, so it's no surprise the employees would remember him fondly. He reminds them of the good old days! A great experience for you Art, reminds me of the time my dad ran into Frank Borman...