Flying for Peanuts

Tough Deals, Steep Bargains, and Revolution in the Skies

By: Frank Lorenzo

Narrated by: Asa Siegel

Frank Lorenzo is the epitome of the American dream. A first-generation American and entrepreneur, Lorenzo started an airline advisory business in his mid-twenties and ultimately rose to control the largest fleet of airplanes in the free world.

Flying for Peanuts explains how the son of Spanish immigrants put himself through Columbia College by driving a Coca-Cola truck and then grew the fledgling advisory into ownership of Texas International Airlines. From there, Lorenzo became CEO of Continental Airlines, a large loss-making west coast airline at the time.

This airline business memoir gives a play-by-play of the high-stakes negotiations that got Lorenzo there, including faceoffs with Carl Icahn and a chapter devoted to selling the Eastern Airlines Shuttle to Donald Trump, soon to become the doomed Trump Shuttle. It details Lorenzo's competition with upstarts like Southwest Airlines and the clashes with unions that led Fortune's to name him one of "America's toughest bosses," along with accolades from his employees.

Flying for Peanuts is for anyone interested in the American airline industry and anyone wanting to apply a trailblazing executive's lessons for their own career success.

©2024 Frank Lorenzo (P)2024 Ascent Audio

Lots of detail about the business side of the airline industry.

Great story, but focused on the CEO’s perspective, of course. I would have enjoyed more stories about flying and other personnel in the business.

Interesting take on things

Frank Lorenzo dishes a self-serving perspective on his anti-labor, corporate raiding tirade that put him front and center in the 80s and early 90s. Interesting to hear his point of view but I’m not convinced in his sincerity, especially as he used the bankruptcy code to break down labor and ultimately destroyed a great American brand and aviation pioneer, Eastern Airlines.

A Great Listen

I gleaned so many awesome business insights from this book! It was really interesting to learn about the aviation industry and the history of Frank’s career and business dealings.

Profound history

Absolute outstanding reflection on a wide range of historical of events. I feel that Franks explanation for the first time from his point of view was an amazing journey as I am familiar with the actual historical events and how neutral he was and his description.

Whitewashed history

A wonderfully narrated whitewashed story playing the blame game solely on unions while failing to mention his atrocious business record so bad that the government has banned him from running an airline declaring him unfit to lead.