and, Are we taking care of our best customers? But Gordon and I didnt bother with them. Continental Air Lines flight 54 was a service from Los Angeles, California, to Houston, Texas. They could see senior management finally taking the actions they knew had been needed for years. We made payroll on January 17 with the help of a $29 million wire transfer Gordon arranged from Boeing. It was pure common sense. Calculated Risk: The crash of Continental Airlines flight 603 We search 500+ sites to find you the cheapest flights. [42] Just before service resumed, the September 11 attacks took place, resulting in a marked drop in passenger numbers, and contributing to the eventual end of Concorde flights. Talk about sending a message about who matters and who doesnt. Some airlines still offer the flexible booking policies. There was silence. Continental Airlines. Maybe things were a bit dicey while it was happening, but it sure doesnt sound like brain surgery.. To monitor our product, we decided to track our monthly on-time performance, mishandled bags, customer complaints, and the rate of involuntary denied boardings. It was powered by four Rolls-Royce Olympus 593/610 turbojet engines, each of which was equipped with afterburners. In the broadest sense, we refers to my 40,000 coworkers at Continental. [18][19], A few days after the crash, all Air France Concordes were grounded, pending an investigation into the cause of the crash and possible remedies. Continental Airlines - Cheap Flights - Fly.com Pilot Error to Blame in Deadly Flight Accident Last February Continental Airlines on Wednesday became the first U.S. commercial carrier to conduct a demonstration flight powered in part by alternative fuels, though large-scale use of such fuel is. November 1985: Tyre burst on a BA plane leaving Heathrow, causing damage to the landing gear door and fuel tank. For instance, wed ask the number two person in pricing at another airline to come run our pricing department. Dynasty Flyer is the airline's frequent flyer program. Get your answers here! Continental ranked tenth out of the ten largest U.S. airlines in all key customer-service areas as measured by the Department of Transportation: on-time arrivals, baggage handling, customer complaints, and involuntary denied boardings. Continental Airlines, also known as CAL was formed in 1959 by some retired Chinese Air Force officers in Taiwan. These boards contain everything an employee needs to know about the company, from a daily news update to Continentals operating results over the last 24 hours. . Sorry, we cant find any flight deals with Continental Airlines right now. Sure, you can skip this step, but youll miss out on the goodwill it fosters and the relationships it spawns. They created a model that works when you have little time and less moneyas well as when you have more of both. Join the millions of customers that have used Fly.com to find cheap plane tickets. The Concorde that crashed was the primary aircraft extensively used in, The timeline and causes of the crash were profiled in the premiere episode of the, The accident and subsequent investigation were featured in the 7th episode during, This page was last edited on 22 April 2023, at 12:23. We organized our solutions to those problems into a strategy that we called the Go Forward Plan. That left Gordon nominally in charge, and he asked me to help. Flight 46, on a flight from Midland, Texas to Kansas City, Missouri suffers vibration just after takeoff and goes into a dive; the flight crew managed to make a wheels-up landing in an open field. FACTUAL INFORMATION 1.1 History of Flight On February 19, 1996, at 0902 central standard time,1 Continental Airlines (COA) flight 1943, a Douglas DC-9-32, N10556, landed wheels up on runway 27 at the Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas. When in doubt, everyone knew it was advised just to let the customers fend for themselves. Who wouldnt after flying on the old Continental? Do it now! We lit a fire of urgency beneath Continental; we rotated quickly and picked up speed as we climbed to 41,000 feet. It joined the Air France fleet full-time in 1980. We were taking in approximately $750,000 per month. 2 engines which led to loss of control of the aircraft. Six other people in the hotel were critically injured.[2][3]. Continental Airlines Flight 1515 was preparing to take off for Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston when "a maintenance-related engine run-up of the right-hand engine" was carried out,. )[33] This skewed the alignment of the landing gear because a strut was able to wobble in any direction with 3 of movement. Confession is good for everyones soul, and often for the pocketbook as well. Save time and money on flight ticket booking with Fly.com. It had to be quiet because if the press caught on, the headlines would send more customers running, taking our revenues with them. Its thrilling to lead people to do something no one thinks can be done. To monitor our performance in the marketplace, we decided to track our monthly load factor, revenue per available seat mile, and quarterly cost and profit margins. When the employees are happy, everyone is happyfrom the customers to the shareholders. Finally, probably to prevent a riot, the captain turned on the DC-9s auxiliary power unit. It was fined 200,000 ($271,628) and ordered to pay Air France 1 million. There were forms for employees suggestions on how to improve the operations, but the suggestions disappeared into a black hole. Greg, I was told, You have just proven you dont know anything about the airline business. October 1993: Tyre burst on a BA plane during taxi at Heathrow, puncturing wing, damaging fuel tanks, and causing a major fuel leak. The rallying cry of our turnaround was, Do it fast, do it right away, do it all at once. They care; they talk; they laugh. Moreover, the measures had to be aligned with the Go Forward Plan. 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. In addition to changing when we served food, we also changed the food itself. We were working hard, yesbut we had great luck, too. But both David Bonderman of Air Partners (the LBO firm that owned the airline) and Gordon were pushing me to join. The court ruled that the crash resulted from a piece of metal from a Continental jet that was left on the runway; the object punctured a tyre on the Concorde and then ruptured a fuel tank. The runway behind is irrelevant. On May 3, 2010, the airline announced it had agreed to be acquired by UAL Corporation, with the transaction closing by September 17, 2010. We promised them full control of their domains. That lowered the cost per seat mile by adding more seats, but it alienated Continentals best business customers and often resulted in an all-coach airplane on long flights when airplanes were swapped during adverse weather conditions. My best suit and I were soaked. In fact, for 15 years, the way to get ahead at Continental was to torpedo someone and then take his or her job. Continental was losing an incredible amount of money and, more important, burning through cash at an astonishing rate. Dead Of Winter - Continental Airlines Flight 1713 - YouTube The government definition refers to airlines with over $1 billion in annual revenues. Flight #. Continental Airlines Flight 1404 - WIKI 2 Page 32: "The maximum structural weight on takeoff being 185,070kg, it appears that the aircraft was slightly overloaded on takeoff". We needed to create a culture at Continental where people liked coming to work. It was a very long list. 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. cvr 000725 - Plane Crash Info [45], French authorities began a criminal investigation of Continental Airlines, whose plane dropped the debris on the runway, in March 2005,[46] and that September, Henri Perrier, the former chief engineer of the Concorde division at Arospatiale at the time of the first test flight in 1969 and the programme director in the 1980s and early 1990s, was placed under formal investigation. We'll let you know when the price of your flight goes up or down so you can book when the time is just right. Nineteen items of luggage, weighing some 500kg (0.5 tonnes) were loaded onto the aircraft at the last minute without being included in the aircraft's manifest, giving the aircraft a weight of 186 tonnes, which exceeded the aircraft's certified maximum structural weight by one tonne. Lots of statistics prove that fact, such as the huge reductions in turnover, sick leave, on-the-job injuries, and workers compensation claims. [34] The additional weight of the extra fuel in tank 11, the rearmost tank, plus the additional luggage shifted the aircraft's centre of gravity rearwards, to beyond the safe operating limit of 54 per cent, set by the Concorde test pilots. Heres a classic example. I have never seen the team that managed a company into a crisis get it back on track. Or choose Cookie preferences to customise your settings and opt out of all or some non-essential cookies. Roundtrip One way Multi-city. Let me tell you why. The buzzer will go off before you attempt the last shot, and you will lose. Gone are the days when Continental put the meat, potato, and vegetable in a little ceramic dish and heated it until they all tasted the same. In the past, the scheduling department had simply written a flight schedule and given it to operations, often only days before they were to fly it, because it was confidential. As a result, the operating departments were frequently stuck with a schedule they had no hope of following: they had mechanics, parts, and crews in the wrong locations. It is the flag carrier of Republic of China with its headquarters in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County. Track Flight. 4. If you fire people inhumanely, youll be left with a bunch of employees who dont trust the company or their coworkers. The aircraft struck the ground left wing low after a heading change of nearly 180, crashing into the Htelissimo Les Relais Bleus Hotel. In-Service Fleets carrying 89 aircraft, including 71 Passenger Jets/ 18 Freighters. The maintenance department was not amused. You may be wondering why Continentals cash situation came as such a surprise. Fare Calendars show the best prices over the next 180 days on 2000+ routes. 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. I have some bad news for you, I told him. The tough partlike in most turnaroundswas getting all that done fast, right away, and all at once. And then fun happens pretty naturally. We rate each airline and travel agent on the service they provide, and remove those who aren't doing the right thing for our travellers. We learned that in one of the early cost-reduction programs, management had decided to clean the airplanes less frequently and to have the pilots clean their own cockpits. 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. After that second incident the "French director general of civil aviation issued an. Let the inmates run the asylum. For years, different groups of employees had been pitted against one another in the effort to drive down labor costs. In a turnaround situationor any business situation, for that matteryou cant afford to ask anything else. This led French authorities to undertake a criminal investigation into Continental Airlines, which ended in Continental being fined 200,000 euros and ordered to pay 1 million euros to Air France. [They] needed to stop flying 120-seat planes with 30 passengers . It was nearly the deadliest aviation accident in history. And thats a very good thing. We offered them options along the way, so if the shareholders won, they would win. The hard news about a turnaround is that you have no choice but to sweep out the old to make way for the new. Did you know that there are no rearview mirrors on an airplane? Leaders must find the most leveraged plan of action, stick with it, and continually monitor the companys performance against it. You bet. [48][51][52] It was alleged that Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen knew that the plane's fuel tanks could be susceptible to damage from foreign objects, but nonetheless allowed it to fly. 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. Do you know what the first step in problem solving is? I asked. Time is tight; money is tighter. Started Operations. The flight's destination was also in Texas. The Continental jet dropped a strip of titanium alloy from its thrust reverser on the runway during takeoff. Read more about this topic: Continental Airlines, An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.Walter Bagehot (18261877), We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.George Farquhar (16781707), 113 fatalities, No passengers killed on DC-10. The rest of the employees, led by a baggage handler who was also being relocated, stood up and defended me, one after another, for 20 minutes. In fact, sometimes when I talk to people about the lessons the turnaround taught us, they say, Well, Greg, those seem simple enough. If you have very little money to spend and you have to spend it very quickly, you had better have a clear idea of the most leveraged plan of action. In the past, any time an employee provided a benefit for a customer that was considered unacceptable, the bankers and lawyers running Continental would write a rule documenting the proper action. [22], Air France's Concorde operation had been a money-losing venture, and it is claimed that the aeroplane had been kept in service as a matter of national pride;[23] British Airways claimed to make a profit on its Concorde operations. I was still with Bain, in the midst of my first assignment for Continental. view 40 history. United Airlines (UA / UAL) Subsidiaries / Group Airlines. Looking for a cheap last-minute deal or the best return flight? How to Prepare for Continental Air Baggage Rules | USA Today The aircraft was a total loss; two passengers died when they evacuated the aircraft directly into the fire. The hard part is figuring out how to improve the customers experience so that revenues increase faster than costs. How? The aircraft was a total loss. Continental Airlines CO Flight Status Tracker - Flightpedia Some of the finance people had regularly been inflating our profit projections by plugging in overoptimistic revenue estimates. Section 1.16.7.3 "The Fuel in Tank 5" (page 118): "Taking into account these calculations, we may consider that the quantity of fuel in tank 5 was practically that which was loaded on the apron, which represents around 94% of the total volume of the tank". Investigation revealed the metal strip was probably a thrust reverser. In the span of a couple of months, we replaced 50 of our 61 officers with about 20 individuals. The French appeals court, while overturning the criminal rulings by the Parisian court, affirmed the civil ruling and left Continental liable for the compensation claims. We named it that because we knew our history was not going to help us. 1 and No. They were too busy trying to knock each other off. 1. A fuel tank was punctured. Presto, now people were in control of their own destiny, and the finger-pointing stopped. Incentives were now aligned; when the customers won, the employees did, too. When I asked one mechanic why he had done this, he explained, When I go to Wal-Mart tonight, I dont want anyone to know that I work for Continental. His response still sends chills down my spine. Any effect on takeoff performance from this excess weight was negligible. Continental started out as one of the smaller carriers in the United States, known for its limited operations under the regulated era that provided very fine, almost fancy . Continentals weekly voice-mails, monthly open houses, quarterly magazines, and semiannual videos shown at regional meetings all focused on talking with and listening to employees. The same team that leads a company into a crisis is rarely able to get it back on track. But the company was still sinking fast. Continental Airlines, also known as CAL was formed in 1959 by some retired Chinese Air Force officers in Taiwan. All nine crew and 100 passengers on board were killed, as well as four people in the hotel. ", "How the Crash of Flight 4590 Destroyed Concorde's Mystique", "Why the Concorde crashed and what happened next", Accident on 25 July 2000 at "La Patte d'oie" at Gonesse, Accident survenu le 25 juillet 2000 au lieu-dit "La Patte d'oie" Gonesse, PlaneCrashInfo.Com Data Entry on Flight 4590, Doomed The Real Story of Flight 4590: Special Investigation, All 109 Aboard Dead in Concorde Crash into Hotel Near Paris; 4 On Ground Dead, "Air France Flight 4590 at Paris, France", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Air_France_Flight_4590&oldid=1151182575. But at the same time, people couldnt believe that we were coming around to say we were sorry and to thank them for their business. Since the costs of the aircraft and fuel were fixed, and costs such as food had already been cut, the only way to reduce costs was to take back wages from employees. The takeoff that killed the Concorde- continental airlines flight 55 Engine number 1 surged again, but did not fully recover, and the right wing lifted from the asymmetrical thrust, banking the aircraft to over 100 degrees. Once the damaged forward tank 5 began to lose fuel, the centre of gravity moved even further rearward. The aircraft encountered severe windshear at an altitude and airspeed which precluded recovery to level flight. But its indispensable if you want to break the doom loop. Continental Airlines was an American airline headquartered in Houston, Texas.On May 3, 2010, the airline announced it had agreed to be acquired by UAL Corporation, with the transaction closing by September 17, 2010.Continental's air operator's certificate was later merged with the certificate of United Airlines on November 30, 2011, with both airlines merging into the same passenger service . [44], In June 2010, two groups attempted, unsuccessfully, to revive Concorde for "Heritage" flights in time for the 2012 Olympics. Filter your search by airline. To involve our employees even more in the turnaround, we put up 650 bulletin boards throughout the system. Strategic direction is never more crucial than during a crisis. File your flight plan and track your progress. Analysis of test results revealed the level of kinetic energy necessary to cause the rupture of fuel tank. Theyve seen their friends get fired. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Continental Airlines Fleet Details and History - Planespotters.net They got us into this hole, the thinking goes, how are they going to have the sense to get us out of it? Ill never know what possessed me to say that. Those are the main reasons we decided to clean house when we took over at Continental. [10][17] They included German football manager Rudi Fanacht and German trade union board member Christian Gtz. get people to their destinations on time and with their bags . Embarrassingmaybe, if we failed. Im not going to tell you that all the employees at Continental are empowered. We fly airplanes, after all. Book the best Continental Airlines fare in seconds with no fees. Every quarter, we send a Continental Quarterly magazine to employees homes, and twice a year we do the same with a state-of-the-company video and recent press clippings. Power was lost to the No. In front of a crowd of employees, we lit a match to it. 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. and start serving food when people were hungry. The plan got every employee heading in the same direction. Of course, wed be fools if all we did was talk at our employees. Break the doom loop by apologizing for your mistakes and focus on delivering a better product. For more than 20 years Fly.com has been the leader in cheap airfare and discount ticket booking. But if we could get every employee headed in the same direction, we had a chance. 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. 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. Until the time came when we could offer them something great, I didnt want to promote a product that we couldnt deliver. If you sit around devising elegant and complex strategies and then try to execute them through a series of flaw-less decisions, youre doomed. And when you are an airline in a do-or-die situation, you dont exactly let your employees sort out strategy. Photographs in the BEA report showed a smashed steel landing light, clipped by the aircraft, parts of which were probably ingested by engine number 1. But we knew we couldnt listen to everything the customers in seat 9C had to say. One of our MD-80 captains called me and said, Greg, I knew we would be a good airline again once our airplanes were the same color.. Let me tell you, for instance, about the day I had to shut down our operations in Greensboro, North Carolina. I want you to listen to what he has to say, and when he tells you to do something, you assume it is coming from me, and do it.. When I look back now, I realize the biggest factor in our favor was momentum. Sure, we were able to fix some problems, such as an incredibly slow reservations system and a substandard customer-response policy. 1934. Continental Airlines Flight 55 - Takeoff Animation - YouTube Continentals was pure common sense. It helps us remember your details, show relevant ads and improve our services. Theyve been lied to. Since reaccommodation expenses showed up in a contra-revenue account rather than as a cost on the general ledger, they escaped the eyes of the cost reduction program. 055 to Newark. The fact is, you cant afford to think too much during a turnaround. Continental lived upor perhaps I should say downto my expectations that day in May. Based in: Ghana. Continental airlines flight 55 - YouTube Im going home to watch TV, I answered. [10][11][12][13] A video of the burning plane on takeoff and the aftermath of the crash was captured by a passing driver. 55 a.m. None: CO378: Larnaca (LCA) Frankfurt (FRA) 10:05 a.m. 1:15 p.m. None: CO1804: Frankfurt (FRA) Cagliari (CAG) 5:45 a.m. 7:50 a.m . In me, Gordon found a frustrated consultant who bristled at the slow pace of change in most companies. Customers told us they wanted and would pay for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Our workers receive 15% of Continentals profitswhich has worked out to be approximately 7% of their pay over the last two years. Our goal was not only to apologize but also to explain what we were doing to fix the company. And the company hadnt posted a profit outside of bankruptcy since 1978. We loaded bags; we stood alongside the agents at ticket counters. Only after that has begun can you move on to making moneythe subject of the next principle. It is a heavy responsibility to make decisions that affect the lives of so many coworkers. Clean house. We needed to get people to their destinations on time with their bags. We try to give everyone some brand quality with gourmet coffees and microbrewery beers. It remains the backbone of the companys strategy today. The official investigation found Flight 55 caused the crash of Air France Concorde Flight 4590 in Paris. When AF4590 subsequently departed, Concorde's left main landing gear tires struck the strip of metal and were punctured. We also started an aircraft appearance department to make sure our airplanes would continue to look great day after day. Employees couldnt possibly know the entire contents of the book. [26] Commercial service was resumed on November 7, 2001, after a 17M (24M today) safety improvement programme, until the type was retired between May (Air France) and October (British Airways), 2003. And to monitor the progress of our people plan, we decided to track turnover, sick leave, attrition, and on-the-job injuries. We agreed that a healthy culture is simply a function of several factors, namely: honesty, trust, dignity, and respect. 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 . Every turnaround involves cost reduction, and Continental was no exception. Members of Continentals existing management team were not up to this challenge. Need customer care support or have any question regarding your travel plans? [26], Despite the accident, Concorde was still considered among the world's safest aircraft. [3]:166[BEA 1], Air traffic controller Gilles Logelin noticed the flames before the Concorde was airborne and informed the flight crew. Remembering U.S. Airlines That Are No Longer With Us - Forbes Many customers, particularly business customers with a choice, selected other airlines, reducing revenues enough to create huge losses. Continental Airlines Flights, Tickets and Deals | Skyscanner We quickly set up a cleaning schedule that tripled the number of times the airplanes are cleaned, cockpits included. The gentleman sitting next to me looked at me and said, Isnt it great that Continental is getting all these new airplanes? I just smiled. They could come to work in airports and on airplanes that looked clean and new. We went through the entire organizationfrom the highest supervisors to the baggage handlers. 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. It also forced the airline to pay more to accommodate customers who had to take other airlines because of missed connections. In order to make up for these increased expenses, management cut costs further. Perhaps the ultimate manifestation of Continentals low-cost approach was CALite, the companys doomed low-cost airline-within-an-airline. Our customers loved Continentals new look. None will knock your socks off, he acknowledges, but all are well worth considering for any company. There was so much wrong with Continental that I felt as if one little misstep could have brought us down. New York $ 415. As for improving reliability, we had to get two sets of folks talking to each other: those that wrote the flight schedules and those that ran the flight and airport operations. We asked the maintenance department to paint the exterior of every airplane the same and to match all the interiors.
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