Plaskett Quits American for Continental
Thomas G. Plaskett, American Airlines’ senior vice president-marketing, has been elected president and chief executive of Continental Airlines, it was announced Tuesday.
Plaskett, one of the airline industry’s most highly regarded executives, was named this year by Fortune magazine as one of the nation’s 10 most-wanted managers. He is credited with having created American’s frequent flyer program, the first in the industry.
It had been widely speculated that Plaskett, 42, would eventually become president of American. Robert Crandall, chairman and president of American, has held both positions since March 1, 1985, when Chairman Albert V. Casey retired.
Crandall, asked at American’s recent annual meeting about the post, said he was not ready to name a president but would consider doing so in due course. On Tuesday, in a message to all American employees, Crandall said he “regretted” Plaskett’s resignation and that no decision on a successor had been made.
Plaskett denied in a telephone interview that the fact that he had not been promoted at American had anything to do with his departure. “The issues are not related,” he said. “This was a unique opportunity. The Houston people (where Continental is based) have gone through the agony of restructuring, and everything is on the upswing now.”
Continental entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1982 but has reorganized and is now making money.
Plaskett will replace Philip J. Bakes at Continental. Bakes was recently named president and chief executive of Eastern Airlines. Eastern is being taken over by Texas Air, a holding company that also owns Continental and New York Air and is in the process of taking over People Express.
Frank Lorenzo, chairman of Texas Air, has said People Express would be incorporated into Continental within a year, so it is assumed that People would also fall under Plaskett’s direction.
His appointment took observers of the industry by surprise.
“Tom Plaskett obviously felt he was ready for a chief operating officer’s job,” said Hans J. Plickert, airline analyst with E. F. Hutton, a New York brokerage. “But running Continental will be different than running American. Continental, in many ways, is a much less structured, more leveraged, smaller company than American and does not have the resources, including a giant computerized reservations system.”
Plaskett joined American as assistant controller in 1974 and rose to vice president-marketing administration, senior vice president-finance and chief financial officer. He assumed his current post in 1980 and is also senior vice president of AMR Corp, American’s parent company.
In another development, Lewis H. Jordan was elected chief operating officer of Continental in addition to his post as executive vice president-operations. He joined Continental in July from Flying Tigers, where he had been president and chief operating officer.
