Moreover, the measures had to be aligned with the Go Forward Plan. In October 1994, Continentals CEO resigned. We changed our meal service with an eye toward what our competitors were doing. [43] Air France stopped flights in May 2003, followed by British Airways five months later. Many companies in crisis mode will change the CEO or president and leave it at that. They picture productivity plummeting, and profits along with it. Algae used in biofuel on U.S. jet test flight - NBC News We have big plans for Continental and mustnt lose our momentum. Its all part of knowing our flight plan and monitoring our progress every mile of the way. In my six-odd years of working on turnarounds at Bain, I had never seen a company as dysfunctional as Continental. The bomb exploded, breaking off the aircraft's tail, and the plane crashed on a farm near Unionville, Missouri. The type was finally retired in 2003: May at Air France; October at British Airways. It is the flag carrier of Republic of China with its headquarters in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County. Dead Of Winter - Continental Airlines Flight 1713 - YouTube [18][19][20], All the passengers and crew, and four employees of the Hotelissimo hotel were killed in the crash. If not, we'll show you the next-best options, by price or journey length. But we knew we couldnt listen to everything the customers in seat 9C had to say. Started Operations. The tough partlike in most turnaroundswas getting all that done fast, right away, and all at once. [3]:115, The accident led to modifications to Concorde, including more-secure electrical controls, Kevlar lining to the fuel tanks, and specially developed burst-resistant tyres. I wasnt sure if I should celebrate or commiserate with my colleagues. When they are constants in a business, people become engaged in their work. 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. And then fun happens pretty naturally. Break the doom loop by apologizing for your mistakes and focus on delivering a better product. Remembering U.S. Airlines That Are No Longer With Us - Forbes We also told our employees we believed in them. Sure, we were able to fix some problems, such as an incredibly slow reservations system and a substandard customer-response policy. They could come to work in airports and on airplanes that looked clean and new. In fact, I usually agreed with everything they said. That was a good thing, because we were in a big mess togetherbigger than either of us knew at first. Continental Airlines Flight 1404 - WIKI 2 The program did decrease fuel costs, but it motivated many pilots to skimp on air-conditioning. Continental is a fun place to work today. cvr 000725 - Plane Crash Info Gruelingwithout a doubt. 22 Years Ago: Air France Flight 4590 Becomes Concorde's Only Fatal Accident When AF4590 subsequently departed, Concorde's left main landing gear tires struck the strip of metal and were punctured. But those fixes were like trying to bail out the Titanic with a coffee can. 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. Leaking fuel gushing out from the bottom of the wing was most likely ignited either by an electric arc in the landing gear bay (debris cutting the landing gear wire) or through contact with hot parts of the engine. The passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS Deutschland in New York for a 16-day cruise to Manta, Ecuador. Two engines were damaged as a result of the accident. Some of the finance people had regularly been inflating our profit projections by plugging in overoptimistic revenue estimates. If you sit around devising elegant and complex strategies and then try to execute them through a series of flaw-less decisions, youre doomed. We needed to stop flying 120-seat planes with only 30 passengers on them. Let me tell you why. Think money in, not money out. Companies that are headed for disaster try to cut costs, but that can sabotage the product, which lowers revenues more. and, Are we taking care of our best customers? List of Continental Airlines destinations - Wikipedia Closing Greensboro was one of the toughest days of my life. People want to be led, not managed, in a time of crisis. Probably none of them will knock your socks off. On the 25th of May 1979, America's deadliest plane crash unfolded in 31 harrowing seconds at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, as an American Airlines DC-10 packed with holiday travelers. [55], The Parisian court also ruled that Continental would have to pay 70% of any compensation claims. After a moment of dead silence, I continued, The first step in problem solving is asking, Who has got the problem? By the way, sending select material to the home is one of the smartest things you can do. Embarrassingmaybe, if we failed. Sorry, we cant find any flight deals with Continental Airlines right now. Flight 1943 landed wheels up on runway 27 at the Houston Intercontinental Airport, Houston, Texas. It was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history. Get started today and Give your life Wings! In the summer of my junior year in high school, I mowed lawns from 6:30 a.m. until noon, delivered office furniture from noon until 6:00 p.m., and then baled and stacked hay until midnight. Cheap Roundtrip Fares to Amsterdam from: (per person, including taxes and fees). Our workers receive 15% of Continentals profitswhich has worked out to be approximately 7% of their pay over the last two years. In spite of my reservations, I signed on. At the time, our stock was trading at about $7, but I told people we wanted to hire that we were going to drive it up to $80 or higher. We just had to get in there and do it. Tyre fragments, flung by the rapidly spinning wheel, violently struck the underside of the wing, damaging parts of the landing gear thus preventing its retraction and causing the integral fuel tank to rupture. Once the damaged forward tank 5 began to lose fuel, the centre of gravity moved even further rearward. Brenneman and CEO Gordon Bethune produced one of the fastest and most unlikely corporate turnarounds ever. But Continental had been cutting costs in ways that sabotaged its product. The aircraft's last scheduled repair had taken place on 21 July 2000, four days before the accident; no problems were reported during the repair. On Thanksgiving Day in 1994, I discovered that we were going to run out of cash on January 17, 1995paydayand no one even knew it. If youre flexible on your departure dates, you can use Skyscanner's whole month tool to find the cheapest day of the year to fly anywhere you like in the world. Do you know what the first step in problem solving is? I asked. Need customer care support or have any question regarding your travel plans? 3. The program didnt cost anything, but it added value to the customer. It also motivated them to fly more slowly. I have never seen the team that managed a company into a crisis get it back on track. Oh sure, people paid lip service to strategy. It also forced the airline to pay more to accommodate customers who had to take other airlines because of missed connections. Then again, the patient is cured now, right? By LISA STARK and HUMA KHAN February 2, 2010, 4:55 AM Feb. 2, 2010 -- Pilot error was one of the chief causes that led to the deadly crash of Colgan Air flight, operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407, last February, federal investigators said today. There was nothing complex about the Go Forward Plan: it was just a matter of logic and common sense. PDF AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT - Aviation Safety I know most of them thought we were on drugs. We knew a major ending was on the horizoneither the old Continental was going to be entirely reinvented or it was going to go bankrupt for an unprecedented third time and would probably be liquidated. When we met, he said that the Greensboro pilots were not angry that we were closing the airportthey could see that there were no customers on the flights. Damaged beyond economic repair when the propellers struck the runway shortly after take-off. 1 and No. Priority bags are a big hit. I knew the fastest way to make money was to stop doing things that lose it. Now, how to create a new culture is the topic of hundreds, if not thousands, of books and articles. Many popular airlines offer loyalty programs. You cant run a company from the executive suite of an office building anyway. We didnt pick randomly; we chose measures that could be verified by the Department of Transportation. 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. You may check the current baggage fees at both the Continental Airlines official website, or by. Sure, you can skip this step, but youll miss out on the goodwill it fosters and the relationships it spawns. There are no hidden fees, just the lowest fares and best value options for your trip. A version of this article appeared in the. We gave the patient little or no anesthesia, and it hurt like hell. But my favorite measure is the sale of Continental logo merchandise at our company stores. And thats a very good thing. Six other people in the hotel were critically injured.[2][3]. In general, our communication policy changed from, Dont tell anybody anything unless absolutely required, to Tell everybody everything. Who wouldnt after flying on the old Continental? Managers were paralyzed by anxiety. As you all know, cash is the lifeblood of any business. According to a report in a British newspaper, by journalist David Rose, the crash had "more than one contributing factor, most of which were avoidable. The pilots could have rejected their contract. In me, Gordon found a frustrated consultant who bristled at the slow pace of change in most companies. Lots of statistics prove that fact, such as the huge reductions in turnover, sick leave, on-the-job injuries, and workers compensation claims. Each time you fly with them, you'll be awarded air miles or points to spend on later flights. The hard part is figuring out how to improve the customers experience so that revenues increase faster than costs. But Continental had been cutting costs in ways that sabotaged its product. Throughout that week, Gordon and I held several dinner meetingsdubbed our Last Suppersat his house. But even with all these obstacles, Continental pulled out of its nosedive, just before it hit the ground, and it soared. Will you land short of your destination? When I first arrived at Continental as a consultant, 18% of the flights were cash negative. Every turnaround involves creating a new culture. One of our techniques was to find people who were in a number two position in their current job and ask them to join Continental in the number one spot. I said I was surprised; we had just finished negotiating the first pilots contract in 12 years, and it had been ratified by a large margin. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated. We were working hard, yesbut we had great luck, too. We decided that at the new Continental, the employees were going to be liberated to do right by the customer and to have fun at work. Actively involving employees in the turnaround is essential. We got a 55-gallon drum, tossed the book inside, and poured gasoline all over it. "[6], While examining the wreckage in a warehouse, investigators noticed that a spacer was missing from the bogie beam on the left-hand main landing gear. I have some bad news for you, I told him. Fly to Win was the market plan: we were going to build up our Houston, Newark, and Cleveland hubs, for instance, and expand our customer mix from backpacks and flip-flops to suits and briefcases. The offer sounds pretty bold for a company almost in bankruptcy, doesnt it? They cant see any way out either. 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 . The historical norm for delivering bad news at Continental was for a senior manager to dump the news in the local airport managers lap and then hide in our corporate office building. [31], Former British Airways (BA) Concorde captain John Hutchinson, said the fire on its own should have been 'eminently survivable; the pilot should have been able to fly his way out of trouble'. What a ride it has been. Continental Airlines, also known as CAL was formed in 1959 by some retired Chinese Air Force officers in Taiwan. In our business, revenue comes from credit card receipts. Its hub airports were in Cleveland Hopkins International . Calculated Risk: The crash of Continental Airlines flight 603 Second, they had to be driven to get things done. On top of that, employees had no place to go with ideas or questions. Some of these managers had spent their careers in the airline business and some hadnt worked a day at an airline. Continental Connection. My first assignment was to help Continental lower its maintenance costs and improve its dispatch reliabilityin other words, figure out a way to fix planes that were breaking down when they needed to be flying. [3]:118[BEA 4] A 30-centimetre (12in) spacer normally keeps the left main landing gear in alignment, but it had not been replaced after recent maintenance; the BEA concluded that this did not contribute to the accident. [3]:166[BEA 1], Air traffic controller Gilles Logelin noticed the flames before the Concorde was airborne and informed the flight crew. I then offered it to all employees, not just pilots. There were 37 injuries among the passengers and crew, and no fatalities. The crew reduced the power on engines three and four in an attempt to level the aircraft, but they lost control due to deceleration and the aircraft stalled. We went through the entire organizationfrom the highest supervisors to the baggage handlers. We could either declare bankruptcy or we could try to convince our creditors that the Go Forward Plan was going to work and then craft a very quiet restructuring. And thats the whole point of asking the customer in seat 9C the right question. It is the flag carrier of Republic of China with its headquarters in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County. 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. January 1988: BA plane leaving Heathrow lost 10 bolts from its landing gear wheel. They re-evaluated two factors that the BEA had found to be of negligible consequence to the crash, the unbalanced weight distribution in the fuel tanks and the loose landing gear. The on-time bonus costs only $3 million per month. Its thrilling to lead people to do something no one thinks can be done. Thats why when we took over, we started talking with employees at every opportunity. Over the years, these rules were accumulated into a book about nine inches thick known as the Thou Shalt Not book. If you bag one of these tickets, you wont lose out if your flight has to be changed or cancelled. By focusing only on costs, the airline had created a product no one wanted to buy. All airlines. . When you are bleeding cash, its hard to think of anything but tourniquets. "Fire service leader: "De Gaulle tower from fire service leader, can you give me the situation of the Concorde?" And to monitor the progress of our people plan, we decided to track turnover, sick leave, attrition, and on-the-job injuries. File your flight plan and track your progress. They may want food at 2:00 p.m., but they wont pay for it. The problem was exacerbated on the left gear's three remaining tyres by the uneven fuel load. Hutchinson believed this did not happen due to a series of operational errors and 'negligence' by the maintenance department. They surrounded the room and refused to sit down. It had to be quiet because if the press caught on, the headlines would send more customers running, taking our revenues with them. We search Expedia, Orbitz and others for packages that can save you even more. HBR Learnings online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Crisis Management. From the Magazine (SeptemberOctober 1998). Needless to say, morale was terrible. The kind of talking and listening Ive described goes a long way toward creating an atmosphere of honesty, trust, dignity, and respect. The aircraft was overloaded by 810 kilograms (1,790lb) above the maximum safe takeoff weight. In my opinion, that approach is like changing only the lead husky on a sled-dog team. 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). 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. Although I was a frequent flier with literally millions of miles racked up on other airlines, I had always avoided Continental because of its reputation for lousy service. Employees couldnt possibly know the entire contents of the book. And for me, it was a defining moment. Why dont we just charter you a Lear jet? Whether you're looking for cheap airfare for business travel or last minute flights to a beach destination Fly.com has the best deals on flights. For instance, in the early 1990s, pilots earned bonuses if the fuel burn rate on their airplanes fell below a specified amount. Any first-year marketing student can tell you that to make more money, you have to listen to your best, most lucrative customers. But its indispensable if you want to break the doom loop. Most important, even with all the work ahead, turning Continental around seemed like it was going to be fun. When we took off at last50 minutes latethe accumulated condensation flowed like a waterfall along the top of the baggage bins to the back of the airplane. 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.). In the broadest sense, we refers to my 40,000 coworkers at Continental. They got us into this hole, the thinking goes, how are they going to have the sense to get us out of it? Its easy to make everyone happy when things are going well. From. The maintenance department was not amused. The airline is operating the Hong Kong route since 1967, and operates in 161 destinations in 29 countries/districts, as of 31 DEC, 2018. We were on our way to a third bankruptcy. Let the inmates run the asylum. EVA Air is the airline's main competitor. The actions required to revive a moribund company usually arent. Pretty soon, we were unstoppable.. In-Service Fleets carrying 89 aircraft, including 71 Passenger Jets/ 18 Freighters. Flight Status. Moreover, pressure and fear often make managers do erratic, inconsistent, even irrational things. Gordon started the meeting by saying, Greg is going to take you through our plan to get this company back on track. Continental Airlines Flights, Tickets and Deals | Skyscanner Go do itnow. Why are we going from Greensboro to Greenville six times a day when both customers who want to fly that route are on the first flight?. I will never forget my first flight from Dallas to Houston on Continental Airlines. Continental Airlines also operate private bus services from airport in The United States to different areas which include California, New Jersey and Philadelphia. By the end of the call, however, they were usually appreciative that an officer of the company had taken the time to seek them out. Continental Airlines, also known as CAL was formed in 1959 by some retired Chinese Air Force officers in Taiwan. "Pilot: "Too late (unclear). Flight 1404 bound for Houston, pulled left and ran off of the runway during its takeoff roll at Denver International Airport. 1. Air France Flight 4590 - Wikipedia Continental Airlines, also known as CAL was formed in 1959 by some retired Chinese Air Force officers in Taiwan. That made our customers late and angry and ruined the lives of our employees who had to work overtime because of tardy arrivals. 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. We needed to create an atmosphere where people liked coming to work. Of all the contributors to Continentals success, Brenneman says, the biggest factor in our favor was momentum. 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. The NTSB described those incidents as "potentially catastrophic", because they were caused by blown tyres during takeoff. Gordon and I each took our share of the letters. Flight 1713 bound for Boise, Idaho crashed on take-off during a snowstorm at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado. 13 June 1979: The number 5 and 6 tyres blew out during a takeoff from, 21 July 1979: Another blown tyre incident during takeoff from Dulles Airport. Maybe I was just fed up with the fact that everyone seemed to have a problem but no one had any solutions. Companies may veer from one strategy to another just to make payroll or keep a client. Begging for forgiveness can be unpleasant, thats for sure. If you ask them what they want and will pay extra for, you will get a single sheet of paper with requests. For most of our employees, one incentive is profit sharing. I was thinking, Greg, this is one of those times in life when you step up to the plate or you chicken out. I had spent the last six years making recommendations that my clients sometimes took and sometimes ignored. [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.