Gordon Bethune Quotes

#1. Do you know how much faster I can fix an airplane when I want to fix it than when I don't want to fix it?

Gordon Bethune

#2. It's like telling Mozart that there are too many notes in an opera. Which one do you want us to take out?

Gordon Bethune

#3. A bankruptcy judge can fix your balance sheet, but he cannot fix your company.

Gordon Bethune

#4. It all sounds almost silly, but the fact is that the only way to change a corporate culture is to just change it.

Gordon Bethune

#5. Since 1978 the record pretty well shows that no start-up airline ... has really been successful, so the odds of JetBlue having long-term success are remote. I'm not going to say it can't happen because stranger things have happened, but I personally believe P.T. Barnum was, in that respect, correct.

Gordon Bethune

#6. I don't think JetBlue has a better chance of being profitable than 100 other predecessors with new airplanes, new employees, low fares, all touchy-feely ... all of them are losers. Most of these guys are smoking ragweed.

Gordon Bethune

#7. I've spent my life as an airplane mechanic, pilot, aircraft manufacturer and airline CEO who never lost a life or an airplane. I am considerate of the risk we take every time we fly. I also know we need to fly and always to improve safety.

Gordon Bethune

#8. We're a stupid industry led by stupid people,

Gordon Bethune

#9. Grounding airplanes to cover your butt would never have let Orville or Wilbur change the world. We would still be spending weeks to cross the Atlantic to do business in London.

Gordon Bethune

#10. You have to begin to put the infrastructure in place to put in high-speed trains ... It should be a national priority. If the French can do it, why cant we?

Gordon Bethune

#11. The point is ... you'd better figure out what your Customers - the Customers you want - value. Because that's what they'll buy. Anything else is a waste of their money, and they'll figure that out in a hurry.

Gordon Bethune

#12. There is no economy without airlines. Airfreight runs the world. There is no Honolulu without an airplane. This is a very complex system. If you take it down, you can't build it back up overnight.

Gordon Bethune

#13. The substitute for knowledge is money.

Gordon Bethune

#14. In airplanes you have a choice between chocolate and vanilla. One year could be vanilla or it could be chocolate. I don't attach any relevance to which one.

Gordon Bethune

#15. If you say three things in a row that make sense, people will vote for you.

Gordon Bethune

#16. We tax air passengers like cigarettes and alcohol - we impose sin taxes on travellers.

Gordon Bethune

#17. Whether I'm at the hangar or at the airport or on an airplane, I get respect. And that's the best part of my day.

Gordon Bethune

#18. The airline business is the biggest team sport in the world. When you're all consumed with fighting among yourselves, your opponents can run over you every day.

Gordon Bethune

#19. It's not about market share. If you have a successful company, you will get your market share. But to get a successful company, what do you have to have? The same metrics of success that your customer does.

Gordon Bethune

#20. What you measure and reward is what you're going to get.

Gordon Bethune

#21. The guy in the airplane goes with you. So he has self-interest to do the good things, too, and I don't know of any pilots that don't have a self-interest in staying alive.

Gordon Bethune

#22. I learned that you can be successful if you get people to help you become successful.

Gordon Bethune

#23. Never forget: Businesses are run by people; businesses are made up of people. So at the root of whatever problems you have in your business, you'll find people.

Gordon Bethune

#24. Every pilot thinks they're the best pilot in the world. I think I'm the best pilot.

Gordon Bethune

#25. No one is going to stick their head out of the trenches for someone they don't respect or trust. You can get shot doing that.

Gordon Bethune

#26. I was a mechanic in the Navy. And mechanics in the Navy are like mechanics in airlines. You may have more stripes than I do, but you don't know how to fix the airplane.

Gordon Bethune

#27. You're only as good as your dumbest competitor.

Gordon Bethune

#28. It's difficult to have everybody like everything you do. I don't know anybody that's perfect and doesn't have a zit somewhere.

Gordon Bethune

#29. You don't lie to your own doctor. You don't lie to your own attorney, and you don't lie to your employees.

Gordon Bethune

#30. It's the old adage: You can make a pizza so cheap, nobody will eat it. You can make an airline so cheap, nobody will fly it.

Gordon Bethune

#31. Somebody who knows what they're doing, who has a good track record, they come across as very articulate, bright and looking for a challenge - that's absolutely my kind of hire.

Gordon Bethune

#32. I just want to be able to get on an airplane and enjoy myself in Disneyland, not sit there worrying about all these assassins.

Gordon Bethune

#33. It's not a testosterone-driven industry any longer. Success is making money, not in the size of the airline.

Gordon Bethune

#34. Most businesses fail because they want the right things but measure the wrong things, and they get the wrong results.

Gordon Bethune

#35. Watches are the only jewelry men can wear, unless you're Mr. T.

Gordon Bethune