Hard Landing

Doing for the airline industry what Den of Thieves did for Wall Street, this book exposes the machinations of the men's club hat runs the world's major air carriers. At once a de facto primer in modern business practices and a riveting history of the world's largest industry, Hard Landing presents an unforgettable portrait of the jet age itself.

Most books...on the airline industry treat it as a single entity, describing the effects of deregulation or strikes or fluctuating oil prices. Or else these books profile a specific airline, personifying it by its controversial or flamboyant owner or CEO.  

Petzinger, though, combines both approaches. He portrays the airline industry as a boy's club run by only a handful of egotistical, ambitious, and arrogant men. Petzinger, once a baggage handler for United Airlines and now Wall Street Journal reporter and editor, colorfully chronicles the changing alliances and enmities of these men as they battle to "win at any cost" and change the way the world travels.