Our goal was not only to apologize but also to explain what we were doing to fix the company. We set up a toll-free hotline that operates around the clock to handle employees suggestions. Managements implicit communication policy had been, Dont tell anybody anything unless absolutely required. After a while, when it became apparent we were going nowhere, I got up to leave the room. Near collision with a Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011. Continentals weekly voice-mails, monthly open houses, quarterly magazines, and semiannual videos shown at regional meetings all focused on talking with and listening to employees. Gone are the days when Continental put the meat, potato, and vegetable in a little ceramic dish and heated it until they all tasted the same. For most of our employees, one incentive is profit sharing. Pretty soon, we were unstoppable.. Climbing Again Continental Airlines has undergone a dramatic and profitable turnaround in the past several years. Flight 290 en route from Midland, Texas to Kansas City crashed on approach, near the south end of the runway and burst into flames. The program didnt cost anything, but it added value to the customer. We gave the patient little or no anesthesia, and it hurt like hell. Sure, you can skip this step, but youll miss out on the goodwill it fosters and the relationships it spawns. Cheap Roundtrip Fares to Amsterdam from: (per person, including taxes and fees). We couldnt afford to have people hoarding ideas or sapping enthusiasm as we built our new organization. We rate each airline and travel agent on the service they provide, and remove those who aren't doing the right thing for our travellers. Employees couldnt possibly know the entire contents of the book. Couple fear strike by nurses . Members of Continentals existing management team were not up to this challenge. During the stop over at Phoenix a 38-year-old man and his 16-year-old son boarded the flight. It was nearly the deadliest aviation accident in history. It would be cheaper. That route, along with other cash-draining flights, was soon eliminated, and 7,000 employees were let go. The fact is, you cant afford to think too much during a turnaround. [54][55][56] The convictions were overturned by a French appeals court in November 2012, thereby clearing Continental and Taylor of criminal responsibility. Chauve and Suaud gave detailed calculations, stating that without the retardation caused by the missing undercarriage spacer, the aircraft would have taken off 1684 metres from the start of the runway, before the point where the metal strip was located, although the BEA disputed this, saying the acceleration was normal. Engine number 1 surged again, but did not fully recover, and the right wing lifted from the asymmetrical thrust, banking the aircraft to over 100 degrees. You're even able to watch specific Continental Airlines flights. Its easy to make everyone happy when things are going well. The Delta flight strayed 60 miles (97 km) off course during its flight and came within 30 feet (9.1 m) of colliding with the 747 as the L-1011 flew under it in Canadian airspace. Our customers loved Continentals new look. The aircraft was leased to Air France on 6 January 1976. That expedited the process of screening candidates and greatly reduced our hiring mistakes. Ask the customer in seat 9C the right question. . Strong leadership, firm parameters, and clear direction are necessary in a turnaround situation, but the workplace neednt be repressive. But I decided to go to Greensboro myself, make the announcement to the employees, and take my punches publicly. "Co-pilot: "Negative, we're trying Le Bourget" (four switching sounds).Co-pilot: "No (unclear). Dynasty Flyer is the airline's frequent flyer program. New data released by Ipsos this morning has shown that around 55% of Britons expect the Tories to lose seats on Thursday, with 45% expecting Labour to pick up support. Finally, probably to prevent a riot, the captain turned on the DC-9s auxiliary power unit. But to go the full distance, we knew that we would also have to communicate openly when the message was tough. If you have very little money to spend and you have to spend it very quickly, you had better have a clear idea of the most leveraged plan of action. We were on our way to a third bankruptcy. The gentleman sitting next to me looked at me and said, Isnt it great that Continental is getting all these new airplanes? I just smiled. They were too busy trying to knock each other off. Continentals was pure common sense. [3]:120123 Engines 1 and 2 both surged and lost all power, likely due to ingestion of hot gases (both engines) and tyre debris (engine 1 only), and then engine 1 slowly recovered over the next few seconds. The airline could not have been saved if everyone in the company, and I mean everyone, had not pulled together. The same team that leads a company into a crisis is rarely able to get it back on track. FACTUAL INFORMATION 1.1 History of Flight On February 19, 1996, at 0902 central standard time,1 Continental Airlines (COA) flight 1943, a Douglas DC-9-32, N10556, landed wheels up on runway 27 at the Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas. Moreover, I had taken the financial relocation package called for in the contract and doubled it. Ask the customer the right question. This aircraft had previously been subject to an attempted hijacking to Cuba, although the hijackers were captured in El Paso, Texas. Thats why when we took over, we started talking with employees at every opportunity. We listen, too. The airline suggested that the Concorde "was already on fire when its wheels hit the titanium strip, and that around 20 first-hand witnesses had confirmed that the plane seemed to be on fire immediately after it began its take-off roll". The aircraft involved was a 25-year-old Arospatiale-BAC Concorde (registration F-BTSC, serial number 203) that had its maiden flight on 31 January 1975 (during testing, the aircraft's registration was F-WTSC). [48][51][52] It was alleged that Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen knew that the plane's fuel tanks could be susceptible to damage from foreign objects, but nonetheless allowed it to fly. But a few minutes later, the creditors came to my office and asked me to come back in. Nineteen items of luggage, weighing some 500kg (0.5 tonnes) were loaded onto the aircraft at the last minute without being included in the aircraft's manifest, giving the aircraft a weight of 186 tonnes, which exceeded the aircraft's certified maximum structural weight by one tonne. Of course, when you are bleeding cash, its hard to think about anything but tourniquets. Thats where our focus was, and its a good rule for any turnaround. view 40 history. Join the millions of customers that have used Fly.com to find cheap plane tickets. We also assigned one city in our system to each officer and asked them to go through the same process of apologizing to travel agents and corporate customers. If not, we'll show you the next-best options, by price or journey length. It would take too long, and its no way to act when strong leadership is imperative. Its hub airports were in Cleveland Hopkins International . We went to work at full speed. We learned that in one of the early cost-reduction programs, management had decided to clean the airplanes less frequently and to have the pilots clean their own cockpits. When AF4590 subsequently departed, Concorde's left main landing gear tires struck the strip of metal and were punctured. Here are a few tips on how to find the best price. Now, fun at work isnt about dancing on the tarmac. We compare every price from over 1,200 airlines and travel agents to find you the best. Oh, Im sure it has happened some time in the history of business, but I cant believe it has happened very often. Pretty soon, we were unstoppable. This communiqu was the result of the NTSB's investigations of four Air France Concorde incidents during a 20-month period from July 1979 to February 1981. The aircraft encountered severe windshear at an altitude and airspeed which precluded recovery to level flight. Those are the main reasons we decided to clean house when we took over at Continental. And they are right: saving Continental wasnt brain surgery. The piece could reach this speed by combination of rotation of the tyre on takeoff and the tyre burst. People are happy when they feel they are making a difference. Compare Continental Airlines flight deals from all across the web. Perhaps the ultimate manifestation of Continentals low-cost approach was CALite, the companys doomed low-cost airline-within-an-airline. Over the years, these rules were accumulated into a book about nine inches thick known as the Thou Shalt Not book. EVA Air is the airline's main competitor. Incentives were now aligned; when the customers won, the employees did, too. Worse, no one had hooked up the planes air-conditioning. Continental Aviation. In early 1995, we took the Thou Shalt Not book to a company parking lot. In fact, I think the word fun scares a lot of executives. But he also knew that when you focus only on cost reductions, you risk sabotaging the very products youre trying to sell. But we had to try40,000 jobs were at stake. Maybe it was the 20-hour days I was working. You will find items like fresh pasta, soup and sandwiches, and freshly baked cinnamon rolls in first class, and Subway sandwiches and jelly beans in coach. In March 1995, I boarded a 737-100, which at 27 years was the oldest airplane in our fleet. Theyve been lied to. En route stops were planned at Phoenix, Arizona and El Paso, Texas. A couple of weeks after I arrived, I was walking the ramp in Houston saying hello to our mechanics and baggage handlers, and helping to throw a bag or two, when I noticed that almost all the employees had torn the Continental logos from their shirts. We hit it off from the start. [18][19][20], All the passengers and crew, and four employees of the Hotelissimo hotel were killed in the crash. For years, different groups of employees had been pitted against one another in the effort to drive down labor costs. No one in the company trusts them any more. How can you drop all this on us and then leave? they demanded. Continental ranked tenth out of the ten largest U.S. airlines in all key customer-service areas as measured by the Department of Transportation: on-time arrivals, baggage handling, customer . In our business, revenue comes from credit card receipts. But they did not feel that the compensation package was fair. The plan also included key performance measures to track internally as well as against competitors (for example, monthly on-time performance, mishandled bags, customer complaints). "it was Fly.com that found the best bargain". We didnt say to the patientif you can call a dying company thatNow, just hold on a while so we can run a lot of tests and then perhaps perform an extremely delicate 12-hour procedure. No, we just took out the scalpel and went to work. We made payroll on January 17 with the help of a $29 million wire transfer Gordon arranged from Boeing. One last thing before we get to the lessons. [10][17] They included German football manager Rudi Fanacht and German trade union board member Christian Gtz. If it's cheaper to travel to/from a nearby airport, we'll alert you. But my favorite measure is the sale of Continental logo merchandise at our company stores. In general, our communication policy changed from, Dont tell anybody anything unless absolutely required, to Tell everybody everything. They are required to research each suggestion and get back to the employee within 48 hours with one of three responses: we fixed it; we are not going to fix it, and here is why; or, we need to study it a little more, and we will get back to you by such and such date. We lit a fire of urgency. If you fire people inhumanely, youll be left with a bunch of employees who dont trust the company or their coworkers. I dont know about you, but to me, a two-hour flight that leaves at 7:00 a.m. (after I have gotten up at 5:00 a.m. to get to the airport and havent eaten breakfast) is a lot different from a two-hour flight at 2:00 p.m., which falls after lunch but before dinner. At 16:38 CEST (14:38 UTC), five minutes before the Concorde departed, Continental Airlines Flight 55, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, took off from the same runway for Newark International Airport and lost a titanium alloy strip that was part of the engine cowl, identified as a wear strip about 435 millimetres (17.1 in) long, 29 to 34 millimetres . So advertising lesslying lesswas another way of saying we were sorry. When I arrived the night before the meeting, I found several messages waiting for me from the head of our pilots union. We named it that because we knew our history was not going to help us. All 45 on board died. Departure time came and went, and people continued to trickle on board for another 40 minutes. For more than 20 years Fly.com has been the leader in cheap airfare and discount ticket booking. Things were much calmer. Fly to Win was the airlines marketplace plan; Fund the Future was the financial plan; Make Reliability a Reality was the formula to improve the product; and Working Together was the blueprint for improving the companys culture. There is a huge gap between what customers want and what they are willing to pay for. The NTSB described those incidents as "potentially catastrophic", because they were caused by blown tyres during takeoff. Gordon and I werent totally convinced that Continental could be saved, even with our plan. Most of them thought I was nuts, but as one of them later told me, I figured if you were even half right, I was still going to be worth a lot of money. (And, in fact, the turnaround created many millionaires.).

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