JetBlue CEO Gets Candid About Low Employee Morale, Not "Winning"

and partnering with another airline with poor morale and treatment of employees

Honestly speaking, JetBlue doesn’t have a corporate fatigue issue. They have a quite quiting or lazy work culture. I have more than a handful of friends who take max benefit of JetBlue’s very generous 14 day work from home policy, for them it’s work from anywhere. They are constantly vacationing - frankly I wonder when they work. I’ve never seen them on a laptop or take a work call ever.

Just because you are an airline company doesn’t mean you aren’t a company or a corporation,

I used to love jetBlue - but had a really bad experience FLL-BOS and their 'service recovery' just made the entire experience even worse. I think they're a disgraceful and dishonest airline.

But that aside, I don't think that it's well run. They have an enviable position at JFK but sell a premium product at a standard price. Little wonder that they have been losing money. All that investment in innovation and passenger comfort and zero commercial or financial benefit.

I think JetBlue should have partnered up with Alaska. Except for the different aircraft the synergies are impressive and combined they could form an airline that could viably compete against the Big 3.

It's been a lot of fun watching Noo Yawk's Hometown Airline die on its feet. And to prop them up, who do they turn to? Chicago's Hometown Airline. The feeling of smug satisfaction is quite nice.

Slow down JetBlue, Elliott can only skin one sheep at a time

Coming from a chicago airline that has gone bankrupt how many times?

This story seems incomplete. It's encouraging that management acknowledges poor morale, but where is any amelioration ? Not even a 'hang in there' ? Almost seems like it's not going to get better for a couple more years so .... ( so get used to it ? ) ...

Once. And it survived, thrived, and grew.

Try again. UA is made up of many originating airlines that have had many bankruptcies. At the UA-CO merger, United was led by Texans from CO. They got thrown out and now United is led by... you guessed it. Another guy from Houston.

Spare everyone your ignorant Chicago vs NYC nonsense when United hasn't been led by a former UA person since 2010 (since nearly their last bankruptcy). If you want to give benefit to a geographic portion of the US (why anyone would who knows... it's weird), "Chicago's hometown airline" has been led by Texas companies or by former AA people (or from Houston). To include a current CEO that has no desire to live in Chicago. And still has his primary residence in Dallas.

Know your facts before you troll

But hey... if you're lucky. United won't move to Denver. 😉 But don't count on it. Chicago is a dying city on just about every metric.

A good competitor keeps that from happening. B6 sniffs around VX, and AS swoops in. F9 sniffs around NK and B6 swoops in. AA sniffs around B6 and UA swoops in.
But you're right, the B6-AS combo could've been nice, albeit weak in the middle of the country.

My corporate BS detector is going really wild on this one.

Over the years this has become my take. I'm responsible for my job not the entire company. I don't get paid the C level bucks to worry about profitability. If I get laid off I'll go work somewhere else. In the end you're just a clog in the wheel so why get down on the big picture.

B6 has not had decent leadership for most if not all of its 25 years with the previous set of "leaders" unable to articulate a path forward and unable to execute on what B6 had decided was its niche - a premium leisure airline.

Their service delivery has been well below average according to DoT data and they have yet to fix the problem but the current mgmt team recognizes the problem.

as with AA, though, there is a point where you can't realistically regain your leadership in a highly competitive industry.
It is far from clear - even with a nudge from UA - that B6 can be competitive w/ DL, B6' most direct competitor, let alone exceed them.

I give credit to Ms Joanna and Mr Marty for giving the airline new direction.
They have one hell of a rabbit hole to climb out of based on Mr Robin's p*ss poor prior management.

They have:
- culled the headcount with early out packages
- trimmed the schedule to the bone (LAX took the brunt)
- dealt with the P&W geared turbofan engine issue (airframes sitting on the ground)
- went shopping for a partner (not too excited about UA, but a deal is a deal)
- deflected Carl Icahn (take note Southwest)

Considering the above, I can imagine morale is below the happy face level.
Well, get over it...its the nature of the beast!!
Enjoy the ride!!

Chicago: I feel bad for you.

New York: I don't think about you at all.

very well said.

and the whole Geared Turbofan issue has impacted low cost carriers including NK worse than carriers like DL which have had enough aircraft to compensate for GTF problems - and DL is also the Pratt and Whitney MRO provider for the GTF. So, yes, smaller carriers like JBLU have been very negatively impacted by the GTF issue and I don't think they will ever be fully compensated for the impact.

I still believe that the UA deal might put just enough more wind under B6' wings to help them restructure as they have planned - and they will ultimately be fine.

It does take time to recover from years of strategic misdirection but, like you, I believe that B6 has the leadership now to go the right direction

Joanna has been in management at JetBlue for decades, she bears much of the blame. She is a skilled attorney who never accepts blame for her own fault and failures. That is why morale is low.

I posted this on other sites but it is relevant to understanding what is going on at B6 which continues to lose share even in its core markets.

The Port Authority of NYNJ just released April traffic statistics and they highlight how big of an issue the runway reconstruction project has been.
In April, DL overtook UA as the largest airline at the 3 airports with a 24.7% share compared to UA’s 24.1%. DL’s traffic was up less than 1% but UA’s was down 5.3%. AA’s was up 5.4% with a 12.6% share. B6 gave up over 10% of their region traffic.
At EWR, UA’s traffic was down 7% but ironically DL’s was up 7.5%. Most carriers had traffic decreases. DL’s EWR share was only 4.2% compared to 68% for UA. The airport as a whole was down 6.4% in traffic.
JFK traffic for all airlines was up just under 1% with DL’s share at almost 30% compared to B6 at 23% and AA at 12%.
LGA was the winner in all of it. Airport traffic was down less than 1% but AA, DL, UA and WN all had healthy increases with AA up almost 19% which was similar to UA’s increase. DL’s LGA share at 44% is well ahead of AA at 25.6%. The other LCCs and ULCCs all had large losses so LGA is becoming more concentrated in the hands of the big 4. WN is the 3rd largest airline at LGA but their share is 1/5th of DL’s.
B6 continues to be unable to post gains and AA has once again returned to the 3rd place position in NYC.
These moves will only grow in May and into June; based on Kirby’s comments about how UA is having to discount to get people back to EWR, the chances are high that AA and DL will have very strong summers at LGA and JFK.
This runway reconstruction project at EWR should have been a one-time low key reduction in traffic at EWR but it has and will result in a larger shift of traffic back to LGA and JFK and to AA and DL, the former of which Kirby was so determined to wound with the B6 announcement.

This is valid, and the blame lies with their talent strategy. JetBlue corporate salaries are exceptionally low for the NY market. Additionally, the company has been unable to offer even modest raises or bonuses to large amounts of its staff for many years. A lack of performance incentives combined with minimal advancement opportunities unfortunately results in a “status quo” culture where employees are discouraged from contributing beyond the bare minimum. JetBlue needs to return to profitability so they can invest in their talent and build a high performing culture.

I obviously don't know what happened behind the scenes, but AA not partnering with B6 just seems like a huge strategic blunder on the part of both AA and B6. They both REALLY, REALLY need each other, and their networks fit together nicely in a complementary way, especially at JFK, where AA could have focused on more international, while B6 fed those flights. AA+B6 made for a formidable, pretty-much-equal-sized competitor to DL at BOS, LGA, and JFK, while not large enough to dominate unnecessarily. One could argue that coordinating schedules and fares went too far, fair enough. But a codesharing partnership could have provided much of the benefits without formal coordination of fare and schedules. On their own, schedules would logically fall into a complementary mix, again esp. at JFK. AA with B6 domestic feed at JFK would logically expand long haul international, something B6 literally can't do and wants to feed. At a slot constrained airport such as JFK, AA would by default be cutting domestic feed to free up those slots for newly profitable long haul international there. Without each other, B6 and AA both continue to struggle at JFK, LGA, and BOS, three very important airports, especially for B6. With B6+UA, I don't see much benefit, especially at BOS. And what does B6 really gain by offering EWR, especially while it's such a mess. With AA, they wouldn't have had to give up slots at their bread and butter JFK hub. Still scratching my head.

i fly JB a lot. i think the morale has gotten better in the last 6 months and the cleanliness of the facilites is much better. Glad they are trying harder.