Diversions and A330's

Today, Republic found themselves in the news twice. The first article which appeared in the Denver Post, was aptly named "Republic chief has "work to do". For the most part the article was pretty mundane, but for me the most telling quote in the piece was, "Bedford said there are no immediate plans to replace Menke but that if a successor is named, the person will be added at Republic headquarters." Apparently, Bedford has obtained a copy of "Revenue Management for Dummies" and feels that he no longer needs the services of anyone with experience in that field or that moving the functions to Indianapolis will magically solve all of those issues like it has everything else. The article goes on to mention that Frontier will be receiving 3 Airbus 330's and 7 Embraer 190 aircraft. I truly hope that the A330 mention was a misquote or a typo instead of A320, but at this point I can't say I would be surprised if it was not and Mr. Bedford doesn't realize the differences in the aircraft. Most of all, I really like the title of this article, "Republic chief has "work to do". Naturally, I began to wonder what work Mr. Bedford has in store. After much searching, I was finally able to obtain this mysterious "To Do" list and as I think you will see, it offers much insight on what it takes to be the CEO at Republic Airways.

Brian Bedford To Do list:
- Check E-Mail and forward "Obama no birth certificate email" again to the non believers.
- Look up current fuel prices and figure out what can be moved to Indianapolis or who's pay can be cut as a result.
- Take a nap.
- Call CEO of Qwest and convince him to move their business and employees to Indianapolis.
- Prepare weekly letter to employees by incorporating at least 2 scriptures, 1 quote from Winston Churchill, and the evils of same sex marriage.

The second bit of news today was the Republic operated flight from LaGuardia to Louisville that diverted to Philadelphia which made nearly every major national media source. The first thought in my head was that there must have been someone looking at porn on the flight.

From Brian Bedford weekly letter ending 11/13/09:
"Let’s be clear, if you see anyone on any of our aircraft viewing porn, not only do they have to put it away immediately, but if they refuse we should warn them the captain will divert the plane and they will be removed from the aircraft for interfering with the crewmembers' duties."

I then learned that the flight was diverted due to security issues concerning a 17 year old Orthodox Jew and his tefillin being confused for a bomb. For those of you unfamiliar with tefillin, they are a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps. I will reserve judgement on the necessity of the diversion itself as I trust the Republic crewmembers did what they felt was in the best interests of the passengers. Maybe Mr. Bedford will use those biblical passages that were in that young man's tefillin in this week's letter. Stay Tuned!