Posted on: Monday, October 29, 2001

United replaces naysayer leader

By Dave Carpenter
Associated Press

CHICAGO — United Airlines hopes a midcourse correction in top management will help regain the shaken confidence of investors, passengers and employees.

Struggling through a catastrophic year, parent company UAL Corp. replaced James Goodwin yesterday, and named board member John W. Creighton as its interim chairman and chief executive after a hurried search.

The move was aimed at stopping the damage done to the company's stock and relations with United unions and passengers by Goodwin's blunt warning less than two weeks earlier that the carrier was hemorrhaging cash and could "perish" sometime next year.

Creighton, 69, the retired head of timber giant Weyerhaeuser Corp., has no experience running an airline and said he will hold the post only until United is "on the road to financial stability." But he moved quickly to try to dissolve public fears that the nation's No. 2 airline might go under.

"There's nothing wrong with United Airlines that can't be turned around by what is right with United Airlines," he said.

Creighton emphasized he plans to pursue tougher measures and said "everything is on the table" as the airline heads into another period of potentially difficult talks with its unions.

Goodwin's dismissal had been widely expected since his tough talk in a letter to employees went public, prompting calls by two unions for his ouster and sending the stock into free fall.

UAL's stock plummeted 25 percent in 10 days, closing Friday at a 14-year low of $13.93 a share. The shares lost 81 percent of their value during Goodwin's time.