The Boeing 767 jumbo jet is fresh off the shop floor, a sleek $138 million model made to order for Continental Airlines. But its pilot on this test drive is a little rusty and nervously wipes a hand on his khakis as he glides in to land on runway 14L at the Moses Lake test facility southeast of Seattle. With the plane just 200 ft. off the ground, a crosswind hits, and the co-pilot warns, in that dead-calm tone they all seem to learn, "You're on the left side of the runway." The pilot slides the plane back to the right and touches down with only a minor bounce. "Lot more fun than the office," says the pilot, Gordon Bethune, with a grin. "But I'm not quitting my day job."
Bethune's day job gives him a far bumpier ride. The CEO of Houston-based Continental Airlines has piloted the nation's fifth largest passenger carrier through eight years of turbulent weather, bringing it back from the brink of a third bankruptcy in 1994. Nothing has been more challenging than the past nine months, with security hassles and terrorist fears driving away air travelers and costing the industry more than $9 billion. Continental was one of only two major airlines earning a profit before Sept. 11 (the other was Southwest Airlines), and Continental in March became the first traditional hub-and-spoke carrier to report a return to pretax profit. Alas, the bottom line turned red again in April, and Bethune predicts more rough weather ahead if the majors don't "wise up"--that is, stop adding seats and start raising fares. "It's a challenging business, which some of us thrive on," says Bethune. "I mean it's crazy as s___. I like it because it's never, never, never static."
Bethune delights in speaking his mind almost as much as he likes climbing into a cockpit. He says competitors trying to cut costs last September were "stupid" to take off magazines and meals in coach, a direct dig at Dallas-based American Airlines. He ridicules "an Atlanta-based carrier"--a reference to Delta Air Lines--for cutting back its sales teams that cater to major clients, to save money after 9/11. "We high-fived each other when we heard it," says Bethune, who promptly sent his pilots into corporate cafeterias to reassure business travelers about security measures.
Bethune's trip to Seattle to pick up the Boeing 767 is a poignant sign of the times: it is one of the last jumbo-jet deliveries Continental will take until the second half of 2003, with the remainder put on hold until demand picks up. Bethune does a few touch-and-go landings at Moses Lake to test the new jet, No. 271 in the nation's youngest fleet (average age: 5.2 years), but he gives up the pilot's seat after an air-traffic controller, not knowing who's at the controls, suggests the 767 fly a tighter pattern to accommodate a military C-17 transport and a P-3 surveillance plane passing nearby. "Continental 9990, do you need to fly all your patterns that wide?" drawls the controller. "Uh, no," responds Bethune, laughing. After the next go-round, he retreats to the cabin.