A comment I read on Airliners.Net got me thinking there next A320 delivered should be named:
"Winter Storm Blues"
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A comment I read on Airliners.Net got me thinking there next A320 delivered should be named:
"Winter Storm Blues"
Wow! Good one! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Iberia A340-600
New York Times:
Great article, read the rest here.Quote:
JetBlue’s C.E.O. Is ‘Mortified’ After Fliers Are Stranded
February 19, 2007
By JEFF BAILEY
The founder and chief executive of JetBlue Airways, his voice cracking at times, called himself “humiliated and mortified” by a huge breakdown in the airline’s operations that has dragged on for nearly a week, and promised that in the future JetBlue would pay penalties to customers if they were stranded on a plane for too long.
Noteworthy points:
• Neeleman concedes his management team sucks
• Most jetBlue telephone agents are outsourced housewives working from home part-time in the Salt Lake City area (better than Bangalore I suppose)
• The staff in charge of dispatching crews is only a fraction of the size it should be for the number of employees they have, which left pilots and crews who were able to work unable to reach base to let them know they were available
• A shortage of de-icer is not mentioned
Advertising Age analyzes the effects of this debacle on jetBlue's PR and marketing:
Quote:
Management's Misjudgement Gives JetBlue a Black Eye
Passengers Stranded Bruise Carrier's Customer-Service Reputation
By Rich Thomaselli
Published: February 19, 2007
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In today's 24/7 media world even the best brands are only ever one horrible misstep away from a PR disaster. Just ask JetBlue.
[snip]
"They blew it," said Steve Danishek, a Seattle travel-industry analyst. "Now it affects their brand. The cost they would have incurred to unload the planes, while high, they could have written off as goodwill. Now they have no goodwill."
The Times article is fascinating, I've never seen a CEO of a publicly traded, service oriented company essentially confess that his team is not up to the task they are quite well paid to do.
I don't know much about B6, but I do know about economics and the accountability of management at public companies and Bethune sort of hits the nail on the head; these guys found themselves out of their league when the proverbial s--t hit the fan because of their background. NYC is not Salt Lake City and this company is far larger and more complex an enterprise than Morris Air or whatever Neeleman ran before. Beyond Neeleman, the impression I get is that most execs at JetBlue are marketing (as opposed to operations) oriented, but please correct me if I am wrong because I am not bashing, I am just making an observation.
Now, as for the stock, the day of the storm, the most influential investment firm, Goldman Sachs, upgraded JBLU to a buy based on improving profit margins. One way profit margins improve is by keeping costs down (the other is by raising prices). I don't think they are in a position to raise fares now, but I think they will take a one time charge for this event, and of course make a few changes. If the stock dips, it might even be a buying opportunity because unless they have to meaningfully rethink their lean, outsourcing-intensive business model and incur new major ongoing costs, it will probably be back to business as usual in a few months.
Jetblue is one of the only airlines at the airport that does there own deicing, right?
As for what they planes didn't come back to the gate (which a few asked, esp. Mike P) the planes were also completely immobile because of the snow and they were literally frozen to the ground.
Similarly trapped at first were the big buses that carry passengers from hardstands, which is a Port Authority thing, not a JetBlue thing.
I'm not trying ot make excuses for JetBlue, but there were several factors that they couldn't control that "buried them" deeper. But, all of this happened because of poor planning.
Come on, Phil - who expected snow and ice in the Northeast in February? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Phil D.
And the downward death spiral begins! (Ducks punches from all angles)
There were lots of circumstances beyond JBU's control, but this comes at a very critical time for the airline. The Airbusses are now 7 years into a mx schedule, the pilots are 7 years up the seniority scale, and the Embraers are still coming.
The airline has been fairly bulletproof so far, and they're a known quantity in their big markets of NYC, South Florida, and Southern California. It's all those secondary markets - the places like Raleigh and Austin and Pittsburgh where this may be a customer's first impression of the brand, and it's not a positive one.
According to CBS Radio, JetBlue has again delayed their return to regular service. Originally they said they'd be running 100% tomorrow morning, but they now expect to cancel about 10% of Tuesday's flights and are aiming for a full return Wednesday — a full week after the storm.
JetBlue is really in some trouble here. I do not think by any means their attitude indicator will be completely brown from this one but they will defineately need to add power and use some elbow grease to pull up out of this one.
This morning I happened to catch the CNBC 2-hour documentary about the operations of American Airlines. I am not a huge fan of AA's service, but something that struck me was how, in both labor and management, everyone seemed incredibly focused on doing their job. Perhaps this is because of the company's long history or a legacy of pulling together after 9/11 to save the company from bankruptcy.
Whatever the reason, I found myself contrasting this model of focus and working together with the business model of JetBlue, a much younger company (so far successfully) based on marketing, outsourcing and run by a man praised by the business media and Wall Street for having attention deficit disorder. I found myself asking, in a crisis, do you want a company run by a guy who is easily distracted? I really wonder if part of the problem here is that someone with ADD is probably not the kind of guy who can sit in an ops center for several days and get things under control. I would never be so simplistic as to say "Arpey is better than Neeleman" but it seems like in a crisis situation, you need the guy in charge to be able to pay attention.
Phil, I heard the same CBS Radio quip this morning but what caught my ear was that they said Neeleman apologized and said that he was "humiliated and mortified."
Humiliated and mortified. Those are potentially dangerous words to throw out. Perhaps he should have stopped at "sorry"
Well, I won't comment there. 95% of this forum has ADD and we do quite well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nonstop2AUH
Now what were you saying?
I hear that mr Neelman is a very colorful person from a pal of mine. I think that the words uttered by him made him sound like he was not in control of the situation not even in the least which is a false statement at any level.
And in other news, Herb Kelleher of WN fame, commented, saying, "I can only describe their situation as....nuts."
(looks for Alex's head to pop out and utter Southwest? NUTS!?)
Crazy, right?Quote:
Originally Posted by moose135
but it was valentine's day... it's not supposed to snow until after you're in bed with the other half...
Neeleman was just on Fox and Friends, kissin butt, but seemingly doing a good job of convincing people that this won't happen again.
Actually if there where a significant weather even in the next month it could happen again as many of the infrastructure changes Neelman mentions need to made probably won't be in effect yet. And while this week is one of the biggest winter weeks for travel the next 2 months are all very busy ones in many of the markets B6 serves, particularly the Northeast to Florida. This may not be over yet folks.
Cheers
LGA777
I was on Flt 4008 the Ryan Air Charter to MCO on Thurnight / Friday morning....once we took off it was fine, it just took a whole long time to finally take off......
As has been proven by Ryanair (of Ireland), consumers will endure ALOT of inconvenience as long as they believe they have gotten the lowest possible fare. However, JetBlue is not a bare bones LCC in the mold of Ryanair or Southwest, and has been marketing itself as somewhat of a 'premium economy' airline. We have now learned that, beneath that image, there are serious infrastructure issues, i.e., maybe they have been able to cultivate the premium image while keeping fares low by skimping on such infrastructure, which they are now going to have to pay up for. They will emerge the better for having done so, but obviously having these added back of the house costs is going to affect their margins, unless they want to start making changes to the front of the house, e.g. charge for entertainment, put that row of seats back in, etc. In sum, the company is maturing and they need to decide what they want to be.