AirTran Ex-CEO: 'Scary Period' for Industry

During 30 years in the airline and aerospace industries, Leonard's most visible posting besides AirTran came at Eastern Airlines from 1984 through 1990. He worked for chairmen Frank Borman and Frank Lorenzo, and he was viewed as Borman's heir apparent until Lorenzo bought the carrier in 1986.

Leonard learned a lot at Eastern. One lesson, he says, was: "Challenge every lie -- never let a lie stay out there."

He's speaking from experience. From the contentious labor climate at Eastern emerged the malicious rumor that Leonard bore responsibility for American's 1979 Chicago crash, which killed 279 people after an engine fell off a plane. The cause was damage to a pylon that occurred during an engine change, in which a forklift was used. Somehow, Leonard was assigned blame, along with the nickname "Forklift Joe," even though he joined American in 1982, three years after the crash occurred. Still, the nickname stuck.

Leonard also learned "the power of will," from Borman and deal-making from Lorenzo. "Borman willed Eastern's existence long after it should have failed," Leonard says. "Failure wasn't in his psyche."

Meanwhile, years later at AirTran, two deals with Boeing(BA Quote) were among Leonard's biggest achievements.

Soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when air traffic had plummeted, Leonard went to Boeing and asked for faster deliveries of Boeing 717s. It seemed counterintuitive, but the goal was to preserve cash. After all, flying new airplanes meant avoiding expensive maintenance on aging DC-9s.

The benefits didn't end there. AirTran had started taking two or three 717s a month in 1999, and the speedup changed its image. Instead of a ValuJet successor with an aging fleet, it suddenly became a scrappy competitor with new airplanes. "It amazed us," Leonard said. "We killed off the old brand and built a new one."