Turnaround Restructuring
US Airways names airline veteran to tackle customer service woes
Auteur : By Dawn Gilbertson, The Arizona Republic
Du : 11/09/2007
US Airways, hoping to boost its dismal rankings in on-time flights, baggage handling and other critical customer-service measures, has added a chief operating officer to its executive ranks.
Robert Isom, who has nearly 15 years of industry experience at Northwest and America West airlines, joins the Tempe, Ariz., airline from financing giant GMAC, where he was chief restructuring officer. The company announced his appointment Thursday along with other executive moves.
The 43-year-old Isom will be responsible for flight operations, in-flight services, maintenance and engineering, airport customer service, reservations and US Airways Express, putting him over the majority of the airline's 36,000 employees. He will report to President Scott Kirby.
In an interview, Isom said he knows what he's getting into with US Airways' myriad challenges and said he is excited to get back into the industry after two years away. He left Northwest when it was in bankruptcy. His last position there was senior vice president of customer service.
He has worked at various times with most of US Airways' top executives and went to business school with the airline's chief financial officer. Isom's first airline boss and mentor was Jeff McClelland,a former Northwest executive and longtime chief operating officer of America West who died a year ago.
Focus on the basics
Isom, a married father of three, said his initial focus will be on how to improve the basics: on-time performance, baggage handling and quickly recovering from major service disruptions such as storms.
He said the fixes at US Airways will certainly require spending on technology, automation and more.
"It's going to be key to our customer experience and employee satisfaction," he said.
Isom said he had a perfect flight on US Airways from Minneapolis to Phoenix on Wednesday morning. He purposely checked a bag to see if it arrived with him.
"And that bag was there," he said.
Might employees have known a VIP was on board?
"They absolutely didn't know who I was," he said, as his appointment hadn't been announced.
Isom will receive a $120,000 signing bonus, an annual salary of $400,000 and stock options and grants, as well as participate in the airline's executive-incentive programs. He will be among the airline's highest-paid executives, based on salary figures in the airline's latest public-pay disclosures. The salary of Doug Parker, the airline's chairman and CEO, is $550,000; Kirby's is $490,000.
The airline has been without an operations chief since Al Crellin, executive vice president of operations, resigned suddenly last fall.
Crellin was the only top executive from the old US Airways to join the new US Airways after the America West/US Airways merger two years ago.
Kirby had assumed the key operations duties after Crellin's departure, but it became clear Kirby was stretched too thin, especially as the airline aggressively tried to buy Delta last fall and then struggled earlier this year with a major reservation-system changeover.
The airline, which still hasn't integrated the operations of America West and US Airways because of ongoing labor negotiations, has ranked at or near the bottom of the industry in key customer-service categories month after month since last year.
Customer service woes
For the first six months of this year, the carrier had the worst on-time performance (63.8 percent) and the most complaints of 20 airlines ranked, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The rate of complaints doubled from a year ago.
It ranked 14th out of 20 airlines in mishandled baggage reports.
The July figures, out earlier this week, weren't much prettier. The airline ranked at the bottom in customer complaints and 14th and 15th in baggage handling and on-time arrivals. The only August figure available to date is on-time performance, which the airline reported today at 69.4%.
The carrier did note today that it had a strong Labor Day weekend, with an average 87.1% of its flights arriving on time.
Earlier this year, an organized group of longtime US Airways frequent fliers threatened to take their business elsewhere because they were fed up with the airline's poor service.
Art Pushkin, chairman of Frequent Flyers Organized and Committed to US Airways' Success, said the new hire "may be too little too late."
"They have already alienated such a big part of their frequent-customer base, I don't know if there's anything they can do to recoup that business."
Pushkin, a Long Island-based sales manager, said he quit US Airways cold turkey this summer because he was fed up with its unreliability. He has been flying American quite a bit, he said, and bought first-class tickets on Continental for a big trip to Italy this fall.
"I would be happy to go back to US Airways if they get their act together," he said.
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Robert Isom, who has nearly 15 years of industry experience at Northwest and America West airlines, joins the Tempe, Ariz., airline from financing giant GMAC, where he was chief restructuring officer. The company announced his appointment Thursday along with other executive moves.
The 43-year-old Isom will be responsible for flight operations, in-flight services, maintenance and engineering, airport customer service, reservations and US Airways Express, putting him over the majority of the airline's 36,000 employees. He will report to President Scott Kirby.
In an interview, Isom said he knows what he's getting into with US Airways' myriad challenges and said he is excited to get back into the industry after two years away. He left Northwest when it was in bankruptcy. His last position there was senior vice president of customer service.
He has worked at various times with most of US Airways' top executives and went to business school with the airline's chief financial officer. Isom's first airline boss and mentor was Jeff McClelland,a former Northwest executive and longtime chief operating officer of America West who died a year ago.
Focus on the basics
Isom, a married father of three, said his initial focus will be on how to improve the basics: on-time performance, baggage handling and quickly recovering from major service disruptions such as storms.
He said the fixes at US Airways will certainly require spending on technology, automation and more.
"It's going to be key to our customer experience and employee satisfaction," he said.
Isom said he had a perfect flight on US Airways from Minneapolis to Phoenix on Wednesday morning. He purposely checked a bag to see if it arrived with him.
"And that bag was there," he said.
Might employees have known a VIP was on board?
"They absolutely didn't know who I was," he said, as his appointment hadn't been announced.
Isom will receive a $120,000 signing bonus, an annual salary of $400,000 and stock options and grants, as well as participate in the airline's executive-incentive programs. He will be among the airline's highest-paid executives, based on salary figures in the airline's latest public-pay disclosures. The salary of Doug Parker, the airline's chairman and CEO, is $550,000; Kirby's is $490,000.
The airline has been without an operations chief since Al Crellin, executive vice president of operations, resigned suddenly last fall.
Crellin was the only top executive from the old US Airways to join the new US Airways after the America West/US Airways merger two years ago.
Kirby had assumed the key operations duties after Crellin's departure, but it became clear Kirby was stretched too thin, especially as the airline aggressively tried to buy Delta last fall and then struggled earlier this year with a major reservation-system changeover.
The airline, which still hasn't integrated the operations of America West and US Airways because of ongoing labor negotiations, has ranked at or near the bottom of the industry in key customer-service categories month after month since last year.
Customer service woes
For the first six months of this year, the carrier had the worst on-time performance (63.8 percent) and the most complaints of 20 airlines ranked, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The rate of complaints doubled from a year ago.
It ranked 14th out of 20 airlines in mishandled baggage reports.
The July figures, out earlier this week, weren't much prettier. The airline ranked at the bottom in customer complaints and 14th and 15th in baggage handling and on-time arrivals. The only August figure available to date is on-time performance, which the airline reported today at 69.4%.
The carrier did note today that it had a strong Labor Day weekend, with an average 87.1% of its flights arriving on time.
Earlier this year, an organized group of longtime US Airways frequent fliers threatened to take their business elsewhere because they were fed up with the airline's poor service.
Art Pushkin, chairman of Frequent Flyers Organized and Committed to US Airways' Success, said the new hire "may be too little too late."
"They have already alienated such a big part of their frequent-customer base, I don't know if there's anything they can do to recoup that business."
Pushkin, a Long Island-based sales manager, said he quit US Airways cold turkey this summer because he was fed up with its unreliability. He has been flying American quite a bit, he said, and bought first-class tickets on Continental for a big trip to Italy this fall.
"I would be happy to go back to US Airways if they get their act together," he said.
Related Articles
[14/03/2007] March 28-31 Dallas TMA Conference Updates Corporate Renewal Professionals on Best Practices
[01/03/2006] KPMG adds turnaround executives to its restructuring practice
[01/02/2006] Chief Restructuring Officers: The Lender’s Secret Weapon
[01/11/2005] Northern California Turnaround Pioneer Receives ACTP Lifetime Achievement Award
[01/11/2005] Tom Ridge and Cokie Roberts Speak at Turnaround Management Association's Chicago Convention, Oct. 20-21
[01/11/2005] Turnaround Professionals to Take on Gulf Coast Business Renewal Project