At the same time, we chose 15 or so key performance measures to track relentlessly and to compare against our competitors. Continental Airlines, also known as CAL was formed in 1959 by some retired Chinese Air Force officers in Taiwan. At takeoff, the DC-10 overran the runway at Los Angeles (LAX) when the takeoff was aborted as a result of a tire explosion; the resulting overrun resulted in a fire that engulfed the aircraft. Six other people in the hotel were critically injured.[2][3]. How can you drop all this on us and then leave? they demanded. [citation needed] That higher speed increased the risk of tyre burst during takeoff. Chalk one up for the power of persuasion. The list also includes destinations that Continental Airlines no longer served by the time of its integration. 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. For years, different groups of employees had been pitted against one another in the effort to drive down labor costs. You have to do it fast, right away, and all at once. There was nothing complex about the Go Forward Plan: it was just a matter of logic and common sense. The aircraft struck the ground left wing low after a heading change of nearly 180, crashing into the Htelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel. Did you know that there are no rearview mirrors on an airplane? It was our story and we were sticking to it (to borrow a line from a country-and-western song). First, we divided the angry letters from customers among our officersexecutives through the rank of vice presidentand started making phone calls. Of course, wed be fools if all we did was talk at our employees. Get your answers here! Power was lost to the No. Please select OK to allow all cookies. In a turnaround situationor any business situation, for that matteryou cant afford to ask anything else. At one point, it drifted toward a just-landed Air France Boeing 747 that was carrying then-French President Jacques Chirac (who was returning from the 26th G8 summit meeting in Okinawa, Japan). The calls would often last half an hour or more. We search Expedia, Orbitz and others for packages that can save you even more. Priority bags are a big hit. Compare Continental Airlines flight deals from all across the web, Keep an eye on your favourite fare and book when its cheapest, Book the best Continental Airlines fare in seconds with no fees. Climbing Again Continental Airlines has undergone a dramatic and profitable turnaround in the past several years. They forget to ask simple questions like, Do we have a product people want to buy? They were just frustrated with 15 years of poor decisions and were taking it out on melike blaming your third wife for all of your problems with the first two. I never denied that Continental had been a terrible airline. Our goal was not only to apologize but also to explain what we were doing to fix the company. [3]:134135 The aircraft was unable to climb or accelerate, and its speed decayed during the course of its brief flight. 2 engines which led to loss of control of the aircraft. We have a great time riding in Brinks trucks distributing profit-sharing checks every Valentines Day. All new hires had to have three qualities. The third step in breaking the doom loop was to cut our advertising budget in half. . The product, in a word, was terrible. Choose travel cost protection and take your trip with confidence. But I decided to go to Greensboro myself, make the announcement to the employees, and take my punches publicly. But to go the full distance, we knew that we would also have to communicate openly when the message was tough. Brenneman and CEO Gordon Bethune produced one of the fastest and most unlikely corporate turnarounds ever. . They cant see any way out either. Managers were paralyzed by anxiety. You bet. I have never seen the team that managed a company into a crisis get it back on track. The board approved the plan, and we were on our way. To figure out which products to make, you first have to ask your best customers what they will pay extra for (for example, safe and comfortable airplanes, good food at mealtimes). They picture productivity plummeting, and profits along with it. The Continental jet dropped a strip of titanium alloy from its thrust reverser on the runway during takeoff. The maintenance department was not amused. In spite of my reservations, I signed on. With the right travel insurance, you wont lose out on money if your flights with Continental Airlines are changed or cancelled or your trip is cut short. "Pilot: "No time, no (unclear). [1] But at the same time, people couldnt believe that we were coming around to say we were sorry and to thank them for their business. People want to be led, not managed, in a time of crisis. They could see senior management finally taking the actions they knew had been needed for years. [6][36][37], In November 1981, the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a letter of concern to the French BEA that included safety recommendations for Concorde. And finally, Working Together was the people plan: we were going to change Continentals culture to one of fun and action and restore employees trust. The aircraft was leased to Air France on 6 January 1976. Thats where our focus was, and its a good rule for any turnaround. We lit a fire of urgency. The type was finally retired in 2003: May at Air France; October at British Airways. All nine crew and 100 passengers on board were killed, as well as four people in the hotel. There was silence. Those are the main reasons we decided to clean house when we took over at Continental. During the stop over at Phoenix a 38-year-old man and his 16-year-old son boarded the flight. There were forms for employees suggestions on how to improve the operations, but the suggestions disappeared into a black hole. The new image had an even bigger impact on our employees. Gruelingwithout a doubt. In me, Gordon found a frustrated consultant who bristled at the slow pace of change in most companies. The program didnt cost anything, but it added value to the customer. 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. We hit it off from the start. You might think the first step in breaking the doom loop is to fix the product, but thats actually the second step. Continental Airlines Flight 1404 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Continental Airlines Flight 1404 was a Continental Airlines flight from Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. Aborting the takeoff would have led to a high-speed runway excursion and collapse of the landing gear, which also would have caused the aircraft to crash. Here are a few tips on how to find the best price. Let the inmates run the asylum. In fact, I usually agreed with everything they said. They all go together; they reinforce one another. )[33] This skewed the alignment of the landing gear because a strut was able to wobble in any direction with 3 of movement. Probably none of them will knock your socks off. The first step in refocusing on money in is to apologize for your bad service. How? And thats the whole point of asking the customer in seat 9C the right question. [54][55][56] The convictions were overturned by a French appeals court in November 2012, thereby clearing Continental and Taylor of criminal responsibility. Gordon and I each took our share of the letters. They knew how to treat customers right, and we moved quickly to let them do just that. Instead, managers who have gotten a company into a mess are usually mired in a puddle of overbrained solutions. For instance, wed ask the number two person in pricing at another airline to come run our pricing department. Visit Fly.com to know about some amazing deals on Continental Airlines. For more than 20 years Fly.com has been the leader in cheap flights and discount airline tickets. [18][19][20], All the passengers and crew, and four employees of the Hotelissimo hotel were killed in the crash. Need customer care support or have any question regarding your travel plans? If you ask customers what they really want, they will write you an epistle a foot thick. 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. 26 May 1937. Over the years, these rules were accumulated into a book about nine inches thick known as the Thou Shalt Not book. 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.). The flight's destination was also in Texas. Damaged beyond economic repair when the propellers struck the runway shortly after take-off. Near collision with a Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011. [48] Continental denied the charges,[49] and claimed in court that it was being used as a scapegoat by the BEA. . [3]:159[28][29] Fuel transfer during taxiing left the number 5 wing tank 94 percent full. You may feel as if youve lost a bit of your authority and control over every last detailbecause you havebut thats okay. In a turnaround situation, people are tense and suspicious for good reason. July 1993: Tyre burst on a BA plane during landing at Heathrow, causing substantial ingestion damage to the number 3 engine, damaging the landing gear and wing, and puncturing an empty fuel tank. The NTSB described those incidents as "potentially catastrophic", because they were caused by blown tyres during takeoff. (For details of the strategy, see the exhibit Continentals New Flight Plan.). Need customer care support or have any question regarding your travel plans? In addition, Gordon records a voice mail each Friday that summarizes the activities of the week. 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. We quickly set up a cleaning schedule that tripled the number of times the airplanes are cleaned, cockpits included. Continental Airlines. Flight 1404 bound for Houston, pulled left and ran off of the runway during its takeoff roll at Denver International Airport. Customers told us they wanted and would pay for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Needless to say, morale was terrible. It returned to service on November 7, 2001, following the implementation of various modifications to the airframe, but to limited commercial success. There were 37 injuries among the passengers and crew, and no fatalities. Taylor was given a 15-month suspended sentence, while Ford, Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen were cleared of all charges. Naturally, our cash-flow forecasts always came in lower than projected because revenue (and thus, credit card receipts) was overstated. To this day, I cant understand why anyone would try to hide an impending cash shortage. Think money in, not money out. As Brenneman wryly states, I knew the fastest way to make money was to stop doing things that lost it, such as flying empty planes. 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). People are happy when they feel they are making a difference. I have never seen the team that managed a company into a crisis be able to get it back on track. While two of the engines had problems and one of them was shut down, the damage to the plane's structure was so severe that the crash would have been inevitable, even with the engines operating normally. [26], Despite the accident, Concorde was still considered among the world's safest aircraft. Theyve been lied to. They surrounded the room and refused to sit down. Large amounts of fuel leaking from the rupture ignited, causing a loss of thrust in the left-hand-side engines 1 and 2. [28][35] As the plane was about to leave the tarmac, with the aircraft rotated for takeoff at a speed of only 188 knots, 11 knots under the minimum recommended velocity. Do you know what the first step in problem solving is? I asked. Section 1.16.7.3 "The Fuel in Tank 5" (page 118): "Taking into account these calculations, we may consider that the quantity of fuel in tank 5 was practically that which was loaded on the apron, which represents around 94% of the total volume of the tank". Clean house. As a result, most employees learned of the companys activities, plans, and performance through the press. As for improving reliability, we had to get two sets of folks talking to each other: those that wrote the flight schedules and those that ran the flight and airport operations. Flight 1713 bound for Boise, Idaho crashed on take-off during a snowstorm at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado. Continental was losing an incredible amount of money and, more important, burning through cash at an astonishing rate. It may even be their most important job; Gordon and I certainly considered it our top priority. Looking back, I can see we were guided by five operating principles. Members of Continentals existing management team were not up to this challenge. Brenneman replaced 50 of his 61 top officers with 20 new individuals. We didnt pick randomly; we chose measures that could be verified by the Department of Transportation. I want you to listen to what he has to say, and when he tells you to do something, you assume it is coming from me, and do it.. We also started an aircraft appearance department to make sure our airplanes would continue to look great day after day. The passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS Deutschland in New York for a 16-day cruise to Manta, Ecuador. In fact, if employees arent having fun at workthat is, if they arent engaged in the process and treated with respectyour turnaround will not succeed. Non-stop flights only. First, they had to pass what we called the raw IQ testthere is no substitute for smarts. Even though the turnaround is over, we wont forget the lessons we learned from it. The Concorde that crashed was the primary aircraft extensively used in, The timeline and causes of the crash were profiled in the premiere episode of the, The accident and subsequent investigation were featured in the 7th episode during, This page was last edited on 22 April 2023, at 12:23.
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