Flight Path

“A very realistic, authentic, and intriguing behind-the-scenes look at today’s airline world, with a cast of characters and plot that would do justice to an Arthur Hailey novel. I have to pay it my highest compliment – I wish I had written it myself.”
– Robert Serling, author of The President’s Plane is MIssing.

Flight Path is a thriller set during the chaotic onset of U.S. airline deregulation in the late Seventies. New York’s BellAir, one of the world’s great international airlines, fight to survive, as low-cost airlines spring up everywhere, undercutting fares and stealing customers. BellAir’s founder, aviation pioneer Charlie Bell, struggles against these more nimble competitors but they drain away business, causing panic among the established carriers.

Charlie Bell knows he has fallen behind in the modern airline environment, lacking in computer savvy and out of touch with his younger customers. Among his new-hires is Philip Hartley, an ambitious young Wall Streeter who positions himself as Bell’s go-to man, cultivating ties with Arthur Winston, an investment banker on BellAir’s Board who has given up on Bell. Impressed by Hartley’s energy, Bell names him V.P. of Marketing, replacing an old colleague from his underperforming team.

Across the country, Frank Delgado, Monterey’s Bay Airlines’ tireless owner, has carved a solid niche for himself in central California. Hartley wants Bay to join his new national small-carrier system feeding passengers to BellAir’s long-haul flights. The stubborn Delgado resists, knowing this is just the first step toward a full takeover, which is indeed Hartley’s plan.

Dee Bell, Charlie Bell’s long-suffering wife, cannot abide Hartley and his slick, manipulative wife Elaine. None of them knows of a secret Hartley harbors which threatens to ruin Hartley’s grand scheme.

Flight Path puts the reader in the cockpit and the boardroom. Safe, comfortable aircraft, top-quality crews, on-time performance – demanding enough in their own right. But the challenge is far more complex because of cut-throat competition spawned by deregulation, and the ever-present threat of terrorism. Flight Path has been called “an airborne Bonfire of the Vanities” and a “must read.” It’s an absorbing tale of ambition, sabotage, strikes and takeovers, propelled by dynamic characters, with implications for everyone who boards a flight.