In a touching gesture, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes started today’s earnings call on an unorthodox note, paying tribute to six employees who died from COVID-19.
AsDawn Gilberston aptly noted, earnings calls are usually carefully scripted events that are light on empathy and personality and heavy on facts and numbers.
But not today. Hayes began JetBlue’s earning with a tribute to all employees and a moment of silence for the six JetBlue employees whose deaths are linked to COVID-19.
“We are deeply saddened to have lost six crew members to the coronavirus, including a pilot, two members of our in-flight community, one support center colleague and two airport crew members.”
Here’s what he shared:
- Ralph Gismondi joined the airline as a flight attendant after retiring from the New York City Fire Department.
- Charles “Chuck” Lewis was a “natural and confident leader” in the airline’s ground operations department.
- Jared Lovos brought “warmth and compassion” to the human resources team after transferring from the in-flight crew.
- Kevin McAdoo was a 20-year Air Force veteran turned JetBlue pilot.
- Ray Pabon was known “for his caring nature.”
- Nikki Thorne was known by her airport colleagues “for being extremely kindhearted and having an excellent sense of humor.”
CONCLUSION
What a classy, touching gesture.
Oh by the way, JetBlue lost $116 million last quarter, compared to a $51 million profit during the same quarter in 2019. But JetBlue’s stock rallied after executives expressed belief that the worst is behind it. Perhaps the empathetic opening also helped…
image: Tomás Del Coro / CC 2.0
I guess you didn’t see the latest news. They did a low altitude flyover of Manhattan with three aircraft painted in special colors to pay tribute to first responders. I think you show one here.
New Yorkers were not happy. According to the WaPo the city is pretty upset. Basically that, “flying passenger planes at low altitude over NYC is not cool for any reason.”