New York Air was based at New York's LaGuardia
Airport, very near the Queens neighborhood where
Lorenzo had been raised. New York Air became
Lorenzo's challenge to the expensive and
near-monopoly Eastern Airlines Shuttle, and
provided cheaper and equally frequent (hourly)
flights between New York, Boston and
Washington-Reagan National.
Founding New York Air president, Neal F. Meehan,
had been a senior manager at both Continental
Airlines and at Texas International Airlines
(TI). In September, 1980, Meehan quickly
assembled a talented team of airline managers,
including Ken Carlson (Strategy), Harris Hermann
(Legal), Stephen Kolski (Flight Operations),
William C. Bottoms (Maintenance), Scott
Christian (Economic Planning), Charles Bare
(Chief Pilot), and Louise Gilliam (Inflight
Service).
Within 90 days, this core management team had
hired, trained, uniformed, and drilled New York
Air's flight crew, flight attendants,
dispatchers, terminal, ramp and reservations
personnel. Office and maintenance facilities in
the hangar which had originally housed American
Airlines headquarters at LaGuardia in the 1930s
were thrown up rapidly, and the carrier obtained
FAA certification as an adjunct to TI's
certificate. In one notable vignette, New York
Air managers interviewed over a thousand
candidates for flight attendant, reservations,
and airport jobs in one day of group interviews
held at New York's famed Town Hall Theater, in
September 1980.
The Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) pilots'
union fought New York Air vigorously, running
picket lines at LaGuardia and Washington
National and taking out critical ads in the New
York newspapers. Suspected acts of vandalism,
interference, and prohibited aircrew operations
were also reported by New York Air flight crews
and managers.
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