Flying Tiger Names Wolf Chief, President

Flying Tiger Line, the troubled Los Angeles-based air cargo carrier, Monday named Stephen M. Wolf president and chief executive.

Under Wolf’s leadership, Republic Airlines managed to turn around from sustained losses over the last three years and was recently acquired by Northwest Orient Airlines.

“Flying Tiger has lost a herculean amount of money over the last several years, and clearly something needs to be done to restore its health,” Wolf said in an interview.

While Wolf said he was hesitant to set an agenda on his first day at the job, he said that cutting expenses and increasing revenue by improving cargo service would be critical to improving Tiger’s health.

Tiger International, the parent of the airline, lost $72.7 million on revenue of $1.47 billion in calender 1985. In the first six months of this year, it lost $57 million, including $23 million of non-cash charges due to the weak dollar.

“When you talk about expense reduction, you can do a lot of different things. The largest discretionary expense an airline has is its salary and wages,” Wolf said. Flying Tiger already has proposed a salary reduction plan to its employees.