Last night at dinner Howard, Jason, Amy, Elizabeth, and I were discussing the JetBlue meltdown from last week (that continues today.) The most bizarre thing to me was the relatively weak response from David Neeleman – the CEO – who is known for being outspoken, direct, and clear minded even in a difficult situation. This morning’s New York Times finally has a strong quote from him in which he says he is mortified after fliers are stranded .
In this article, Neeleman shows he is very aware how badly JetBlue has screwed up dealing with this situation. The article states “Mr. Neeleman said he would enact what he called a customer bill of rights that would financially penalize JetBlue — and reward passengers — for any repeat of the current upheaval. He said he would propose a plan to pay customers, after some amount of time, by the hour for being stranded on a plane.”
In addition to finally speaking up, Neeleman is quoted as saying “I can flap my lips all I want. Talk is cheap. Watch us.”
Shortly after reading the NY Times JetBlue article, I came across Sagi Rubin’s post titled A great startup CEO comparable in which he reminded us of the management greatness of Winston Wolf.
“So, pretty please, with sugar on top, clean the fucking car.” I sure hope Neeleman has a Winston Wolf on his team to help him deliver on his promises.