Eastern Pulls Issue of Fortune From Its Flights

When Eastern Airlines flight attendants pass out magazines on the carrier’s flights during the next few weeks, they won’t be handing out the latest issue of Fortune.

The airline has ordered the Feb. 27 issue of the biweekly business magazine pulled from its more than 200 aircraft because it contains a cover story calling Frank Lorenzo, chairman of Eastern’s parent company, Texas Air Corp., one of “America’s Toughest Bosses.”

In a brief directive to aircraft service managers around the country, Eastern said: “It’s imperative that the current issue of Fortune magazine be removed immediately from all Eastern aircraft.

“Dispose of all copies locally,” said the directive, according to the Miami Herald. “Have a member of management audit all aircraft to ensure compliance. Report accomplishment by tail number to Miami.”

Lorenzo’s picture appears on the issue’s cover. A caption states that Lorenzo “likes managers to work 14 hours a day, six days a week.”

The brief profile calls Lorenzo a “loose cannon” and quotes past and present executives of Houston-based Texas Air as saying Lorenzo is a highly impulsive manager.

“He is a visionary, a dealmaker, a union buster and a showboater,” says the profile, part of a larger article on other “tough” corporate chieftains.

The story also talks of intrigue and backbiting among Texas Air’s executives.

Eastern spokesman Robin Matell said the order to remove Fortune came from the airlines’ middle management.

“I can assure you it did not come from Houston,” he said.

Art Kent, a Texas Air spokesman in Houston, concurred that Lorenzo did not issue the directive.

Continental Airlines doesn’t normally stock the magazine on its flights, he said.

Matell said Eastern, which faces a March 4 strike threat by the International Assn. of Machinists, had nothing to gain by leaving the magazine its planes.

“The profile of (Texas Air’s) chairman was unflattering and would be viewed in that vein by our passengers,” Matell told the Herald. “Considering the current environment, we decided to remove the issue.”