Jetblue’s Exceptional Crisis Management

JetBlue’s Exceptional Crisis Management

The winter storm catastrophe that occurred February 14th, 2007 will likely go down as the worst crisis in JetBlue company history, and will serve as the company crisis management plan for years to come. As a winter storm approached the JFK airport in New York, JetBlue continued to load passengers onto planes and allowed them to taxi onto the runway (Hanna). As conditions worsened takeoffs halted and some passengers had to wait up to ten hours to return to an open gate. News of the crisis quickly spread via mass media, Internet blogs and YouTube videos, hurting the company’s reputation for exceptional customer service and creating a crisis for JetBlue (Harmon). Crisis management is a process designed to prevent or lessen the damage a crisis can inflict on an organization and its stakeholders (Coombs), and JetBlue CEO David Neeleman’s crisis management was effective in limiting the damage this crisis caused. JetBlue Airway’s CEO David G. Neeleman’s response to the February 14th crisis was effective for three reasons: first, Neeleman released an immediate apology to all 131,000 passengers affected by the delays, cancellations, and diversions, so he could regain the trust of JetBlue’s customers (Hanna); second Neeleman reimbursed and compensated all customers affected because JetBlue had strong attributions of crisis responsibility (Coombs); and third, he instituted a new bill of rights for the company to ensure that JetBlue will be effective in future crisis situations (Elsasser).

        CEO David Neeleman immediately released video apologizing to all 131,000 passengers affected by the delays, cancellations, and diversions, so he could regain the trust of JetBlue’s customers (Hanna). In the video he apologizes and says, “In all challenges…there’s two things you can do, ignore it and say it was an aberration, or determine if there’s something you can do internally to ensure this will never happen again…and as CEO I want to ensure you that the events that transpired this week, and how they transpired, will never happen again”. (JetBlueCorpComm). Neeleman’s apology was received well by customers, market research firm J.D. Power and Associates reported that JetBlue was back in the good graces of passengers according to its customer-satisfaction surveys (Elsasser). In addition, JetBlue was ranked number one in low-cost airline customer satisfaction for 2007(J.D Power), which is significant because this report came out just months after the crisis. Coombs would say that Neeleman’s initial response was effective because in his apology Neeleman expressed sympathy to the customers affected by the crisis (Coombs). Neeleman’s sincere apology made JetBlue look sympathetic towards those affected, thus earning back the trust of their customers.