Southwest CEO picks up trash and serves snacks during flight
Bob Jordan, CEO of Southwest Airlines, tends to not wear suits so that he can give his planes their hands while flying.
Over a wide range Interview with the New York Timeshe unveiled his own flying habits, spoke about Southwest’s recent decision to end long-standing policies, and shared advice he received from legendary co-founder Herb Kelleher.
Jordan said he prefers window seats, but when he flies for business he can sit in the aisle, get up and talk to the flight attendant, and move around the cabin.
“I will serve snacks. I will pick up trash. Then I will sit in the cockpit and talk to the pilot,” he said. The era. “I don’t want to raw people, so I can sit in the aisle and go out and do something.”
In fact, he rarely wears a suit when flying, and usually wants to work with the crew, so he wears a vest or polo shirt. The lawsuit is usually reserved for visits to Washington, D.C. and for meetings with lawmakers and other officials.
Jordan even suggested that his useful habits extend to ground crews.
“I want to go downstairs and unload my bag. It’s very difficult to get my bag down and get into the belly of an aircraft with my suit on,” he said.
The CEO also discussed the reaction to Southwest Last year’s decision To end the famous open seating policy and start billing for premium seats and its pivots earlier this year Reduce that “bag fly-free” policy.
“We know that there are things that are not happy, and we have many, many, many, many, many, which are happy,” Jordan said. “You need to keep talking because people don’t sometimes understand what you’re doing. What I found is that if people know where we’re headed, they’re very excited. Change is hard, so I think we have to play this period of change.”
He acknowledged that Southwest “catch up a little” with other airlines would have to “catch up a little” with other airlines by moving into a new policy in months rather than years.
However, he denied that change was driven by activist shareholders Elliott Investment Managementasked for a shake-up on the airline. Airlines Last year, the board of directors was revamped. However, he maintained Jordan as CEO.
Jordan also reminded me that he started southwest in 1988 when Keleher was CEO and said he met on the first day.
When asked if Kelleher, who passed away in 2019, would consider the major changes happening in Southwest today, he answered with some advice he received from the airline co-founder.
“One of the number one herb quotes was, “If you don’t change, you’ll die,” recalls Jordan. “Herbs didn’t build airlines to become open seats and plastic boarding cards. It was a huge growth to be efficient.. Herbs have built the airline that is different from the service perspective. ”