Are you a loyal flier?

How one CEO is trying to build a brand

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Americans are on the move. After two years of pandemic restrictions, the airports and airplanes are filling up with travelers. Higher fuel costs and inflation mean that airfares are up, but travelers are paying. Does it matter which airline you fly?

If fliers don’t see a significant difference in flight schedules, service, amenities, and aircraft experience, they will shop for price only. That makes a flight, an airline, nothing more than a commodity. Fliers show no loyalty to an airline. The commodity business is fine for wheat or copper, but it makes it difficult for an airline to make money.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby speaking to employees. (Credit: Twitter-scottkirby)

This leads us to Scott Kirby, a longtime airline executive. Kirby was thought to be next in line to be CEO of American Airlines in 2016. The American CEO at the time reportedly told Kirby as much. A couple months later, everything changed. Kirby was told to leave the company. He was out. Days later he was scooped up by United Airlines. He served as the number two until he was named CEO.

"UNITED NEXT"

With a bit of fanfare last summer Kirby announced his plans for the future of the airline. He calls it United Next. His plan includes the purchase of 270 new jetliners. But more importantly, Kirby wants to create a brand.

He has now given us a better idea of his thinking. He’s borrowing from an airline that merged with United, and one of United’s biggest competitors. Air travel, “doesn’t have to be a commodity,” Kirby explained on the company’s latest earnings call. His mission is to “replicate” what others have done.

Continental Airlines commercial from the 1990's. (Credit: Continental-Flyinggeeks1)

Kirby reached back 30 years to Continental Airlines (merged with United in 2010). Continental was one of the lowest-rated airlines in the early 1990’s. Back then I met the Boeing Executive running the Renton plant that was building the 737 and 757 aircraft. Gordon Bethune is a different kind of executive. He’s a bit of a character.

Former Continental Airlines chairman and CEO Gordon Bethune sports a temporary tattoo of the Continental logo in August of 2002. (Credit: Lawrence Lucier/Getty Images)

BETHUNE

Bethune got the call to move to Continental. He jumped, and within a year he was running the fledgling airline and is credited with one of the most famous airline turn-arounds. He started creating the Continental brand in 1994, he says, by treating his employees and customers well. First it was his workers.

Bethune, told the US Chamber of Commerce there, “wasn’t anything wrong with the employees. It was the management — and it always is.” He says if workers are asked to make sacrifices, management should be willing to do the same. The holidays are a busy time for airlines. Bethune says he showed up for work telling his employees, “I appreciated them working on Thanksgiving, and that I appreciated their work in general.”

(Credit: US Chamber of Commerce)

Bethune says the message resonated with workers. “You become a true member of the team then. You’re not the manager. It’s a team.” The Continental teamwork then flowed to customers. “The best way to differentiate your product is to be consistently reliable and dependable,” he said.

DELTA MODEL

Another airline embraced this model. United’s Kirby made a nod to his competitor Delta Airlines for becoming employee- and customer-focused 15 years ago.

United Airlines CEO speaks on the company's April 2022 earnings call about the history of creating a brand in the airline industry.

Kirby is buying new aircraft and retrofitting old planes that will be more comfortable for employees. He hopes that will make United, “a place they want to work.” Kirby says if his people are, “proud it flows through to the customers.” That sounds a bit like Bethune.

“We are a people business,” Kirby proclaims, adding, “the key to greatness is actually having a brand.”

(Cover photo image credit: United Airlines)