In & Out at Eastern

Six months ago Eastern Air Lines President Malcolm Maclntyre, 55, summoned his vice presidents to his conference room in Manhattan and warned them that he was calling in management consultants Booz, Allen & Hamilton "to see if the right people are in the right jobs." Last week, shortly after Eastern reported a $12.5 million loss for 1963's first nine months, Maclntyre decided that he himself was not in the right job. He handed in a terse one-line resignation.

Eastern's new boss is articulate Floyd Hall, 47, who resigned as general manager of Trans World Airlines to take the job. A hard-nosed administrator, Colorado-born Hall joined TWA as a co-pilot in 1940, worked his way up through the flying side until he was appointed general manager in 1961. He has played a key role in turning faltering TWA into a thriving airline.

Malcolm Maclntyre made himself the friend of the passenger. A brilliant lawyer and former Rhodes scholar, he was serving as Under Secretary of the Air Force when Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Eastern's board chairman, and Laurance Rockefeller, the line's largest shareholder, tapped him in 1959 to run Eastern. He concentrated on the cabin instead of the cockpit. He introduced Eastern's famed no-reservation Air Shuttle service, pioneered low-cost Air-Bus travel and made ticketing procedures simpler.

Unfortunately, Maclntyre was hampered by two prolonged strikes, over-competition on key routes, and a shortage of jets. Also, he often lacked the patience to explain his ideas to his staff, rushed into too many new projects too soon. The result was that he ran Eastern into a $39 million net loss in four years, the line's first deficit since its incorporation in 1938. Said one senior Eastern executive: "The directors began to wonder, what with the cash flow Eastern has, why some of it never sticks."

Maclntyre's successor will have to make some cash stick. Hall will be helped by the fact that Eastern has just completed a Maclntyre-planned $237 million refinancing plan that will enable it to take delivery on 40 new Boeing trijet 727s next year. Also in Eastern's favor is the recent decision by the Civil Aeronautics Board to remove Northeast Airlines from the New York-Miami run. Though the CAB order is now being tested in court, the chances are good that within a few months Eastern will have only one competitor, rather than two, on the lucrative sunshine run.

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