10 Questions with David Neeleman
Founder and CEO, JetBlue Airways
Release Date: April 4, 2007
Release Number: Con-01-01
Editors Note: As one of our regular features, Continuum will interview newsmakers in the business community to talk about important issues of the day. Our first interview is with JetBlue Airways Founder and CEO David Neeleman. He talks about his airline's response to the February snowstorm that stranded thousands of passengers and lessons learned from the event.
1. From an operational perspective, what transpired with JetBlue during the Presidents Day weekend storm and why did it happen?
On Valentine's Day, the northeast was socked with an incredible ice storm. Several forecasts suggested that the icing conditions would convert to rain and/or snow early in the morning, so we planned our operation for that opportunity. On Valentine's Day we did what we thought was the right thing for our customers. We cancelled only a handful of flights based on forecasts that provided various windows of opportunity - breaks in the weather - to get flights off the ground. We have always believed that customers would rather get to their destination late than never, and we were relying on those forecasted breaks to get our customers out. We got into a situation where planes had been pushed off the gate and were deiced and ready to go. They were just waiting for those breaks in the weather, which never ended up coming. At the same time, we had planes still landing at JFK from across the country, creating an imbalance in our system. We had too many planes on the ground and not enough gates for them to park at, so a handful of flights (nine, to be exact) sat for excessive amounts of time before being deplaned.
In the days after the storm, problems progressed because we had not canceled flights early enough or deep enough. We were in a situation where we had dozens of planes out of place and hundreds of pilots and inflight crewmembers out of place, too. An airline in a storm like this one is like a big jigsaw puzzle that's been thrown up in the air. The pieces are difficult to put back together. We needed to reset our operation by cancelling a portion of it, which allowed crewmembers to get their FAA-mandated rest time, and allowed us to reposition our aircraft in the cities where they were needed for a successful return to service.
It took us six days to recover from the Valentine's Day ice storm. That is just unacceptable. We put our customers and our crewmember through hell. Customers understand why their flight is cancelled or delayed during a storm. They even understand when the operation is upset the day following a storm. But day three? Forget it.
2. As an airline CEO, weather is always a concern for the aviation industry. How do you plan for an event of such magnitude that it is beyond what you can anticipate?
We have a team of highly skilled weather experts in our system operations command center who monitor forecasts from up to five different sources around the clock. And it's not just winter storms that we're concerned about. On any given day, we're facing conditions across the nation that affect which cities our planes can reach and what routings we can take to get there. In the past month, we've had three major winter storms in the Northeast, but we've also had to cancel or divert flights due to other weather conditions like volcanic ash clouds in Puerto Rico and dense, low-hanging fog in Los Angeles. It's a rarity to have a disruption as powerful as the ice storm we experienced here in the Northeast on February 14 - and this year we've had two other big storms just like it. As the only airline based in New York City, our operations are subjected to weather here on a disproportionate scale compared to most other airlines. We prepare the best we can: every city has contingency plans specific to their location for weather or emergency conditions and all our crewmembers are empowered to use their best judgment and make the hard decisions necessary to support our operation when conditions we couldn't have anticipated hit.
3. What advice would you give other CEO's in handling an exploding crisis?
Throughout our Presidents Day weekend disruption, it was really reinforced to me that first and foremost, as a leader, you need have to have the best team working behind you, and you have to trust them and believe in them. Here at JetBlue we have some of the best crewmembers in the industry. We put them in an incredibly difficult situation that weekend, sometimes without all the tools or information they needed most, yet they continued to do everything they could to help out our customers and crewmembers. We're lucky in that we've created a different kind of work environment at JetBlue and we had thousands of crewmembers come out and volunteer to fly, to work in our airports checking people in and sorting bags. We had crewmembers head to JFK from our headquarters and work the ticket counter for 18 hours straight. We couldn't get them to go home. Would you see that same dedication at all the other airlines? I'm not sure you would.
Obviously we took the problems we faced to heart. I founded this company, and I live and breathe for JetBlue. To see our problems mount that weekend was devastating, so I did what I thought was the right thing to do. I got out there and apologized for what we put our customers and crewmembers through. I said we messed up, we had systemic problems, and we're going to make it right. Of course there were mixed reactions to my frankness, but can you imagine the alternative? Sitting back, saying nothing, and taking no responsibility? That's not JetBlue and it's not me.
But talk is cheap. I pulled the senior leadership together and laid out the top five areas of concern, and asked them to come up with solutions, new tools, and resources to better support our crewmembers. Focusing on what we can do better for our crewmembers is the key to better serving our customers.
4. How do you work with competitors to develop solutions that are mutually beneficial to your company, your industry, and the economy as a whole?
The aviation industry is so competitive, especially here in New York, which is probably the busiest and most competitive air travel market in the world. Some days it seems pretty cutthroat, with airlines duplicating each other's routes and taking potshots at each other in the press, but we rely on cooperation with other airlines a lot. We work with other airlines on day-to-day things, like borrowing an extra gate or a baggage cart at the airport when we need one, and providing the same support when another airline needs our help, but there are also big-picture, longer-term issues that we're focused on, as well.
Together with other airlines, we're working with the FAA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which operates JFK, our primary airport), to look at better ways runways and air traffic flow around the airport is managed. We're in the most congested airspace in the country, but we think there are areas for improvement that could increase the capacity at JFK. There are a lot of runways at JFK, but we don't feel they're always being utilized to the best of their advantage. That's why we've seen long delays at JFK, which used to be a ghost town for domestic flights before we set up operation there in 2000.
I've also talked a lot about coal-to-fuel technology, and how I think it could be the wave of the future. It's a long ways away, and still has a lot of challenges to overcome before it's a viable option, but we've got to be focused on developing energy alternatives right now since fuel remains such a huge expense for JetBlue and for all airlines. I'm kind of alone on that effort, but I know other airlines would greatly benefit from a more reliable and less expensive source of energy. I'm willing to lead this effort because it's environmentally friendly and it will help JetBlue grow.
5. What training do your employees receive for handling crisis situations?
We have a comprehensive crisis and emergency response department at JetBlue, and they work to coordinate our operations in situations like the Presidents Day weekend disruption. They run our Emergency Command Center, a central location where all aspects of the airline are coordinated. They work to open the lines of communications and provide support for all our crewmembers, wherever they are and whatever their role is. From those in our airport operations department right down to those in marketing, benefits, and corporate real estate, all crewmembers in all areas have a specific and valuable role to play in handling crisis situations. We practice with drills and tabletop exercises, and we have contingencies in place, but there is no substitute for real experience. Experience is a great teacher. In the aftermath of the Valentine's Day ice storm, our team did an excellent job handling a truly unfortunate situation.
6. Are employees trained and/or empowered to make decisions in an emergency, or is there an easily identified chain of command to ensure quick decisions?
One of the great things about our crewmembers at JetBlue is that we really empower them to do what's right for customers. We won't hire people if we don't feel they have good judgment and will go out of their way for our customers. That same rule applies from our pilots through to the people at our airport counters and from the number crunchers to the IT experts in our headquarters. We all have to be totally focused on customers - they give us our livelihood. Of course everyone has leaders they can look to and rely on for guidance, but we expect crewmembers to take a great degree of responsibility and accountability in how they treat customers and other crewmembers and how they respond to frustrating situations.
7. You launched a very aggressive public relations campaign immediately following the event and the negative publicity. What was your mindset in dealing with the criticism so aggressively?
As the founder of JetBlue, it was heartbreaking to watch our breakdown, and to see us go so quickly from media darling to the butt of every late-night joke. Some people thought I went overboard in my apologies, but the truth is, I personally felt I had to do it - how could I face our customers and our crewmembers if I didn't fess up and take accountability for our problems? We didn't back down from this crisis because we knew so much of it was within our control. We couldn't control the storm and the inches of ice that caked JFK and stuck our aircraft to the ground on Valentine's Day, but we could have better controlled our recovery in those days after the storm. We've admitted that. Getting in front of the negative publicity and in front of the public and saying, 'We messed up-and badly,' was less a PR stunt than simply the right thing to do.
We also launched our Customer Bill of Rights the week after the storm. No other airline comes close to being as obsessive about customer service as we do. That's why we created the Bill of Rights, which provides real compensation to customers inconvenienced when flights are cancelled or delayed. It's our way of letting customers know that they can count on us, even in many situations that are beyond the control of our airline. It's our way of saying, 'We screwed up. We want to make it right. So we're putting our money where out mouth is.'
We've also done a lot more work internally, to make sure our processes and tools are up to par. We made immediate fixes that worked expertly during the March 16 storm weekend. We were the first airline to deeply cancel flight on Friday, March 16, but we were also the first airline back in the skies on Saturday - running 98% of our flights when other airlines were still cancelled through noon.
8. What operational successes occurred during this event that you would like to share?
In a lot of ways, JetBlue is like a family. It just feels natural to us. We have 12,000 crewmembers, but we've work hard to maintain a small-company feel as we grow. Always putting crewmembers first paid off for us when the Valentine's Day storm hit. We were overwhelmed and humbled by the sheer number of crewmembers who came to volunteer to help at our airports and in our support centers. They all contributed immensely to our recovery effort. We had pilots and inflight crewmembers canceling their vacations because they wanted to pitch in and fly. Everyone in our reservations center in Utah - regardless of their official function - took calls and rebooked customers. Seeing so many crewmembers supporting other crewmembers bolstered that camaraderie we all feel at JetBlue, and created a feeling of adrenaline that drives us as we make real changes to the way our organization operates.
9. Personally, what have you taken from this incident?
In many ways the Presidents Day weekend was a turning point for JetBlue. You might say it served as a divider for us - slicing our history into a "before" and "after" period. Before, we believed we were doing a pretty good job. We had earned all those awards for best airline and best customer service. I wouldn't necessarily say that we were lulled into complacency, but we as we've grown, we haven't always done an excellent job in scaling all areas of our operation. We've added planes and new cities, but some of the supporting stuff on the back end, that customers never see, like our crew services team which schedules pilots and inflight crewmembers, wasn't beefed up like it should have been. Airlines are fine operating on a slim staff when the weather's OK, but when weather hits we have to be able to ramp up in our support areas, like in reservations and in our airports. We're doing that through technology initiatives, cross-training, and some new hiring.
If I ever had any doubt about how to best react to a crisis, I got over it quickly. Early on in our disruption, I knew we had to take accountability for what we put our customers and crewmembers through. I couldn't personally or professionally avoid it. That's why I was out there talking to the press and to our customers, letting them know that we weren't going to point fingers for our reaction to the storm. We were responsible for our inability to react quickly enough, and for our failure to reset our operation soon after the ice and snow had disappeared.
10. What was the most important lesson that JetBlue learned through this entire incident?
When we started service back in February 2000, we decided that our mission would be to bring humanity back to air travel. We were all about new ways of thinking. We'd sit around and ask, 'Is there a better way of doing it?' Just because airlines have been doing things in a certain way for decades doesn't mean it's the best or right way to do it. But somewhere along the way, we lost sight of the fact that in many regards, the industry was doing some things right. Like pre-cancelling flights in advance of storms. The Presidents Day weekend is changing the way we respond to storms. We're doing more pre-cancelling, but only when it's appropriate.
After the Valentine's Day storm, we faced two other powerful weather systems. In the first, we got creative and instead of cancelling flights from places like Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., that were bound for JFK and booked full of people with connections down to Florida, we simply rerouted them straight to Florida, and customers got their early. Our system operations crewmembers won a lot of points with Upstate travelers that day for putting them first, but it was really all in a day's work for them. It's that kind of thinking that needs to thrive at JetBlue, and that we're getting back to. I can't recall an instance where airline did that sort of out-of-the-box thinking.
And after the most recent storm, which hit on March 16, we were able to declare victory over the weather. We strategically pre-cancelled flights so planes and crews would be in the right places and we could have a smooth start-up when the storm passed. We may have been first out of the gate with cancellations, but we were also the first airline to really get back to flying in New York when the storm passed.
Last Modified: Thursday, 19-Jul-2007 11:06:26