Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for May 2020.

Doug Parker Shares His Version Of Viral Discussion With A Flight Attendant About Race

by Gary Leff

May 31 2020

This morning I covered a fantastic story about an interaction between American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, where they connected over issues of race and the challenges confronting our country right now. This story, initially shared by the flight attendant to Facebook, is gaining broad coverage across the internet.

Doug Parker actually shared his version of the encounter as well, first with American’s executive leadership and then with employees on their company intranet. Here’s what he wrote.

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Doug Parker Flies Southwest Airlines And Gets Into A Conversation About Race

by Gary Leff

May 31 2020

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker was flying Southwest Airlines out of Dallas to end the week, an airline he’s called ‘the cattle car’. A flight attendant notices the book he brought on board, but not who he is. He’s not her CEO, after all.

Parker was reading White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism. During the trip the flight attendant sat down next to him, he was in an empty row, and she asked him how the book is.

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In The Era Of Corona, One Restaurant Re-Opens For Just A Single Guest At A Time

by Gary Leff

May 31 2020

For people not quite ready to go back to the way things were, there’s a restaurant that’s opened for only one guest a a time. In the middle of a field.

When a guest arrives they’re “greeted with a sign and a rope.” The rope leads to a table in the middle of a meadow. The restaurant asks you for a list of your closest friends, and they solicit a note from someone you know. The note is at the table, so the meal begins with ‘social interaction’.

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EU Allows Lufthansa To Take $10 Billion Subsidy, Keep German Protectionism

by Gary Leff

May 30 2020

Lufthansa was given slots at congested airports – a huge government subsidy. Those slots were made perpetual property rights of the airline. That’s a barrier to competition. The E.U. has rules against subsidies. To waive them, and allow Germany to provide a $9.8 billion injection into the airline, they wanted competition, but they’re unlikely to get it.

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It’s Official: Greece Re-Opens To Tourists From Around The World July 1

by Gary Leff

May 30 2020

Greece will begin opening to tourists June 15 and then open up to the world starting July 1. And once you can enter Greece, you can probably visit most of Europe.

And with no more than the possibility of random coronavirus testing, there won’t be many hurdles to visiting – although that doesn’t offer the assurance that everyone else you encounter has been tested.

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