December 2024
At least occasionally being as close to product, customers and competition as reasonably possible is probably a good idea for all bosses, if just to check on whether their middle management reports the truth or what they are supposed to want to hear.
1 reply
December 2024
One wonders how much money is saved by having high-salaried management members standing in line in airports, shoes in hand. Hardly their fault that airline travel has turned into an ordeal.
2 replies
December 2024
▶ Bent_Esbensen
It would hardly make sense to have execs loitering around airports turning a four-hour trip into a daylong waste of time. Maybe the execs just didn’t have a reason to fly anywhere that month. That sometimes happens in the GA world. And I would add these jets not only transport execs but often times technicians and engineers. There seems to be a lot of assumptions in this story. It will be interesting to see if the Challengers return to a normal schedule we’ll read anything about it.
1 reply
December 2024
▶ Bent_Esbensen
I’d chalk it up to “tuition” for the execs to learn what their ultimate customers go through to get on one of their planes. Perhaps an idea or two will percolate on how to make the whole process more pleasant.
1 reply
December 2024
▶ jfphelan
It won’t. Its a show for the masses ‘see we are just like you’ etc.
Back to business as usual in a week.
Yawn.
December 2024
When I flew a King Air for FlightSafety Services Co. the total trip cost had to come in under the cost of airline tickets. That generally only happened when visiting the simulator sites, e.g., Denver to San Antonio, to Wichita, to Grand Forks and return. It was sad to think of a corporate VP sitting in St. Louis airport for several hours because it was cheaper than flying him directly to NY. Salary was never part of the equation.
December 2024
They may be flying commercial but they wont be in economy.
December 2024
I am retired Boeing. For 8 years I worked directly for a Senior Level Director (one step below VP level). Perk of the office for him was business or first class travel. He always worked company business on the flights and he said he had to be very careful who was sitting next to him to avoid visual spying. On many occasions that we traveled together, he booked me the adjoining seat so that we could talk business and business work on our laptops. My boss told me that most execs worked this way while traveling. I enjoyed the perk because when I traveled by myself, it was back of the plane for me, sigh.
Corporate aircraft provide a secure environment for executives to work, and today allowing them to stay in touch via phone, text, e-mails, even video conferences.
1 reply
December 2024
▶ jgoedker5320
Some business aircraft are indeed used for the business.
GTE Northwest telco, TC Tel, and BC Hydro used them regularly. A specialist could be taken to a location to do her work, the airplane would move around the region/province transporting other people and needed parts, then pick her up on the way back to HQ town before night.
Generous Motors had a fleet of airplanes ferrying people and parts in the NE US and ON/PQ, IIRC twin Convairs circa 1970s-80s,
I am receptive to talk about saving time of individuals, but also suggest that it would be good for Boeing executives to see first hand what crew and pax face in using their products.
December 2024
▶ Ahesketh
Collaboration and security are good points.
I recall that Boeing engineers were booked in business class on long trips, presumably to be more rested to get work done well at destination.
December 2024
▶ Siegfried.lenz
Really this had NOTHING to do with ‘getting closer to customers’… it was all about some VERY desperate cost cutting!
December 2024
It could be that the new boss has got it right. Executives can and will work as conditions permit. They too have a huge stake in turning Boeing into a profitable enterprise. All the top folk need to understand the entire business to make meaningful contributions and suggestions. Good for Mr. Ortberg.
December 2024
I worked for Boeing from 1981 to 2017, and NEVER got anything but an economy seat. Typical trips were from Seattle to DC.
Back when I started, I asked if Boeing had any “business” jets (this was well before the BBJ). Was told that Boeing didn’t, as they wanted to appear to be supporting their airline customers.
Was also told that, if an executive needed to go somewhere, somehow there would be a not-yet-delivered airliner in pre-delivery testing that was going to where they needed to be…
December 2024
Sadly, the choice is almost always between (a) flying commercial with four-hour connections, and (b) the largest possible business jet.
There’s a huge in-between area. Let’s start with luxuriant piston singles like the Piper M series. Then you have piston twins like the cabin class Cessnas and Pipers. Single turboprops from Piper, Pilatus and others. Twin turboprops like the King Air someone mentioned.
All of them have operating costs far, far lower than Boeing’s Challenger 650s. They consume less fuel, leave behind fewer tons of greenhouse gases, leave behind more money to run the company, and so on.
I’d love it if executives would say, “The trip is only 500 miles. Let’s take the Malibu.”