An Evening in Houston

Few people in the airline world are as controversial as Frank Lorenzo. From just before the dawn of airline deregulation in the United States in 1978, throughout the 1980's and into the 1990's, Hardly a month went by when you didnt hear some sort of news about Frank Lorenzo, Continental Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, or Texas Air.

Back in April 2025, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture and book signing by Frank Lorenzo himself, touting his new book "Flying for Peanuts: Tough Deals, Steep Bargains, and Revolution in the Skies". The event was held in the 1940's Air Terminal Museum at Houston's Hobby Airport, which is one incredibly well done museum with exhibits not just from within Texas, but the US airline scene from its inception in the 1920's. It is a definite must see for anyone interested in airline history, or history buffs in general.

On that note, let's get back to the event at hand. The lecture started out with an intro from Frank's daughter, Nicole. Her intro was short and sweet with several family tales interwoven with what her perspective during the Texas Air days was. From there she introduced the man himself, and for 85 years old, I gotta admit, he still has that razor sharp mind and cold, calculating analytical presence I've only heard stories of.

Frank held court over the Q & A session for over an hour, and so many questions were asked about his earliest acquisitions, or jobs, such as his very first at TWA while he was in college, or his first consulting gig, trying to work with Zantop Airlines out of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Now, the crowd here was mostly old Texas International folks that used to work in the infamous "Blue Hangar", then migrated to Continental after the merger. There was even a few from New York Air in attendance as well. All in all it was a well organized event, thanks to the Houston Aviation History folks, and Michael Bludworth in particular.

Frank covered a lot of ground between the time he took over Texas International, the infamous bid for National Airlines, squaring off for control of Continental, briefly and sadly going over Al Feldman's tragic suicide, the shutdown of Continental during the first bankruptcy and the flight-by-flight restarting and rebuilding, all the way to the buying of Eastern Air Lines, dealing with Frank Borman, the battle of wits against Charlie Bryan and his minions at Eastern, and finally stepping away and divesting himself of Texas Air to Scandinavian Airline System (SAS).

He touched on his post-airline work within the capital markets, with his investment firm, Savoy Capital, as well as the philanthropy work he does, especially in Spain. All in all, it was a great evening, a trip across the pond that I am glad I made, for despite what has been said about the guy by my industry cohorts, I see two other sides to him, and as anyone who knows me can attest, I don't let emotions get mixed in with business, whereas most of my airline brethren do.

I know I'm opening up a door to a world of hurt and ridicule with this post, but oh well, this was just my two cents, on a fantastic get together and get my copy of the book signed by the man himself, and ask a few questions that I had rolling around upstairs that I've always wondered about. Not to mention seeing several old co-workers of mine, from one of the greatest airlines that ever flew, and for a long time, called Houston home.