This Week’s Featured Link
Southwest’s New Skipper Buckles Up – Texas Monthly
How about a nice long article about incoming Southwest CEO Bob Jordan? I’d say this quote from the head of SWAPA sums up this long piece well. “Bob is a people person, and I think that’s fundamentally different from Gary Kelly.”
Tweet of the Week
Two for the Road
Delta welcomes Scott Laurence as Vice President of Network Planning – Delta News Hub
And it is now official. What a coup for Delta to pick him up.
Incoming CEO at Southwest Airlines faces numerous challenges – Associated Press
Oh heck, let’s double up on Bob. Here’s an interview from Dave Koenig at the AP.
16 comments on “3 Links I Love: Learning About Bob Jordan, Delta Makes It Official”
With all due respect to Scott Laurence, why is getting him a coup for DL?
(I totally thought he was headed down to SCL with his old running mate MSG.)
Emac – Scott was one of the architects of the Northeast Alliance between JetBlue and American, and now he’s taking all that knowledge over to their biggest competitor in New York and Boston. That’s a huge deal for Delta.
The L1011 really was an engineering marvel. It was an overengineered marvel but still a marvel nonetheless.
A) If airlines knew what a POS the DC-10 turned out to be, they would have purchased a lot more L10s.
B) If Rolls Royce hadn’t completely screwed Lockheed with delay after delay on the engines, they would have sold a lot more L10s.
C) Both A and B
My second ever flight was on a BA L1011, IAD-LHR – bloody wonderful plane.
One of my earliest flights was on a BA L1011. MAN-JFK, as I recall. Horrible flight because my seat was in the row before or behind the smoking section.
There are few sounds in aviation more magical than the sound of an L10 firing up its engines.
Or that smell of the hydraulic fluid!
If you’re smelling hydraulic fluid on a commercial airliner on the ground, I would get off! You might be thinking of jet A fuel.
Nope Jordan gets rid of Van de Ven… the operation is terrible under his management.
How many real “secrets” are there in the airline industry? I may be reading the comments incorrectly, but some of them make it sound like Scott Laurence was the only competent person at JetBlue. I tend to think there are probably a few more highly talented and intelligent people who still work at the airline, and that Mr. Laurence’s “secrets” aren’t really that secret. But, of course, I could be mistaken.
Desert – I wouldn’t say it’s about who is competent or not. But Scott being one of the main architects means he knows the key drivers to making it successful. That isn’t necessarily what gets shared throughout the full organization. His knowledge in negotiations with American can serve Delta well.
Maybe I missed it, but I’m curious. Did Scott leave JetBlue on his own, or did Delta “poach” him?
Desert – I don’t think we know the answer to how this went down.
In the pic inside the Texas Monthly story on Bob Jordan of WN, he is standing on the ramp at DAL, next to a WN aircraft. There is one important item missing in this photo–Bob, I don’t see an ID badge (airline or airport) visible on your ‘flak vest’. What’s the deal?
Not uncommon for those to be removed for a staged publicity photo, and not a big deal – plenty of airline staff standing around, photo crew plainly visible, and he had to have them to get onto the ramp. Not an issue.