Well, I guess this means I’ll find another lawsuit from Jonathan Ornstein in my mail box, but what the hell.

I mean, if I can’t talk about the news, then I guess I might as well move to Russia. Oh, that’s right. That’s all I was doing before — and I still got sued.

Okay, somebody’s got to see if the First Amendment is still valid.

Today Herb Greenberg, who writes a column for MarketWatch.com, appears on CNBC’s Squawk Box, and who used to be a fellow columnist with me when we both wrote for TheStreet.com — came out with his choice of the worst CEO for 2007.

Needless to say, given the financial hijinks of a number of financial sector CEOs this year, Herb’s pool of potential candidates was deep and wide.

But instead of one of the investment or financial nominees, Herb chose Eddie Lampert, Chairman of the Board of Sears as the Worst CEO of 2007.

Okay, so what does this have to do with anything airline related?

Because while Mr. Lampert was the recipient of Herb’s top award, a nice chunk of his diatribe this morning on CNBC concerned another CEO who we are all more familiar with. That CEO? Jonathan Ornstein of Mesa Air Group.

As Herb said in his column today on MarketWatch,

“Away from financial services, Mesa Air’s Jonathan Ornstein received the most write-in votes by employees, investors and employees of competitors. (It was an impressive, concerted campaign.) Not only does the company suffer the lowest margins and boast the worst-performing stock among regional airlines, with “skyrocketing” pilot attrition (per an Air Line Pilots Association press release), but it recently was embarrassed after a judge ruled that Mesa must pay $80 million to Hawaiian Air for using confidential, proprietary information to start its inter-island Hawaiian competitor, “go!” (Mesa says it plans to appeal.)”

If you’d like to see Herb’s animated stint on CNBC this morning, where he also talked about Mr. O in less-than-flattering terms, you can watch here.

Ticker: (Nasdaq:MESA)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa Air Group

Rather major news out late today from the same Calyon Securities conference we referenced earlier today.

Northwest Airlines CFO Dave Davis told analysts today that Northwest Airlines‘ flying for DHL Express will end late next year.

DHL Express is the airline’s largest cargo customer.

As some of you know, the cargo business at Northwest has already been posting rather anemic results over the last year or so. But this is not an easy situation for the airline to remedy. One, Northwest is the only major U.S. airline to have its own dedicated cargo fleet. Two, a major chunk of the airline’s cargo business takes advantage of  Northwest’s exclusive rights to the Pacific. No way Northwest is going to give those up.

Interesting predicament.

Tickers: (NYSE:NWA)

Calyon Securities is holding an investor conference in New York this week, and today there was a chorus of airline executives who basically said the same thing — 2008 is not looking good.  For that matter, neither is the fourth quarter of 2007.

Delta Air Lines’ CFO Ed Bastian told the conference that operating profit for the airline is now forecast to come in flat to down 2% for the fourth quarter, down from the 3%-5% increase the airline projected as recently as mid-October when it presented its third quarter earnings call.

In response to the declining numbers, Bastian told analysts today that the airline now plans to institute a partial hiring freeze, it now plans to increase the number of job cuts, it is cutting its marketing budget, and it is installing lighter seats and winglets on some aircraft to improve fuel efficiency.

Bloomberg also reported today that the airline will also “considerably” reduce U.S. seating capacity by returning some leased planes. For next year, Delta now plans to cut U.S. capacity by 4% to 5% while adding 15% to international flights.

Bastian told the conference that fourth-quarter fuel costs may rise to as much as  $2.60 a gallon, 9.2% higher than its previous estimate. The carrier paid $1.73 per gallon at the beginning of the year.

As for Southwest, CEO Gary Kelly said in a statement today that the airline now plans to reduce its 2008 capacity growth to 4% to 5%. This  is the third announced reduction in 2008 capacity plans for the airline.

“We are concerned about growing evidence of slowing economic growth that would inevitably affect passenger demand, coupled with a surge in energy prices,” Southwest Gary Kelly said today.

The airline said that it will now take only seven to nine new Boeing 737-700 aircraft in 2008, down from its original plans, which called for an increase of 34.

Meanwhile, Continental is also slowing its growth — again. The airline said today that it is now looking at a capacity increase of only 2%-3%, down from its last forecast for 3% to 4% growth.

As for United — CFO Jake Brace said matter-of-factly today, “We see no business case to grow domestically.”

Tickers: (Nasdaq:UAUA), (NYSE:CAL), (NYSE:DAL),(NYSE:LUV)