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Tue April 22, 2008

Southwest's ex-boss sees rough time ahead

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The Facts
Biography:
Howard Putnam was raised on an Iowa farm and learned to fly out of a pasture in his father's J-3 Piper Cub. He entered the airline business as a baggage handler at Midway Airport in Chicago for Capital Airlines at age 17. Capital was soon merged into United and Putnam held 13 different positions in sales, services and staff assignments in several cities, before being named Group Vice President of Marketing for United Airlines, the world's largest airline, in 1976.

Putnam ended a 23-year career at United to become president and CEO of a fledgling Southwest Airlines in 1978. At Southwest, Putnam and his team tripled the airline's revenues and profitability in three years. They also successfully guided Southwest through airline deregulation and Southwest was the first air carrier to order the Boeing 737-300, which later became the largest selling aircraft ever for Boeing.

In 1981, Putnam was hired to take over the financially troubled Braniff Airlines. He was the first airline CEO to successfully take a major carrier into, through and out of chapter 11. After leaving Braniff in 1983, Putnam became chairman of the Dallas investment company Diamon Management Group. In 1989, he left the corporate world and began a career as a speaker and author.

He is the author of "The Winds of Turbulence.” A Harvard University case study detailed his experiences at Braniff, and the resulting "The Ethics of Bankruptcy” is used as a model on to how to handle stakeholders in crisis.

Putnam is 72 and lives in Reno, Nev.

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By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
The last time Howard D. Putnam visited Oklahoma City, he was accompanied by two flight attendants resembling cheerleaders and was promising to revolutionize air travel by launching two daily Southwest Airlines flights from Will Rogers World Airport to Dallas Love Field at a cost of $37 for a one-way fare.

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And that charge included free peanuts and soft drinks.

The former Southwest Airlines CEO who later steered Braniff Airlines out of an early 1980s bankruptcy reflected on a very different industry as he returned to Oklahoma City last week to address a gathering of Spirit Bank executives at Moore's new Warren Theater.

He recently visited with The Oklahoman:

Q: Do you remember when you expanded Southwest Airlines service into Oklahoma City?

A: There was a young public relations person ... I asked him, ‘How many people do we need to visit in Oklahoma City about getting support for Southwest Airlines?

He said, ‘Four – (Oklahoman publisher) Edward L. Gaylord, (oilman) Dean McGee, Gov. George Nigh and (banker) Charles Vose Sr.' And they were the four people I went to see. I brought along two flight attendants when I went to see Mr. Vose. And those original flight attendant uniforms were like the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader uniforms. I marched them into Mr. Vose's office, his eyes got this big, and he said, ‘Is your stock traded on an exchange?' I said, ‘Yes sir, the New York Stock Exchange.' He asked, ‘What's the name?” I said "LUV.” He spun around in his chair, he had a machine of some kind, he's working away, he turns around and says, ‘OK, I just bought 10,000 shares of Southwest Airlines.'

Q: The airline business has changed since then, hasn't it?

A: I'm glad I'm talking about it and not in it now.

Q: It's tougher?

A: When crude oil got to $20 a barrel when we were taking Braniff through bankruptcy, it was said you can't make money at $20 a barrel. Now they have $114 a barrel. It's a serious problem for those folks. I read the other day that United said if they were to fly a 747 from Chicago to China they would need $500 per person on the flight just to pay fo