> becomes president and CEO and appointed to the Board of Directors
>2007
>We bucked the system to become the ultra low-cost carrier of the Americas
>2011
>We become a publicly-traded company
>2016
>Bob Fornaro leaps into action as the new CEO
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Prof Ben Baldanza Goes To JetBlue
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Typical spirit airlines flight
barrel roll
https://youtu.be/hlcDR62qPp4
Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza speaks to CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg and the "CBS This Morning" co-hosts about how his company manages to keep occupancy high, despite their low customer rating.
WHO WE ARE
We’re rebels with one cause: saving people money on air travel to give them more go. We innovate by unbundling our fares and giving our customers options, so they can choose how they fly. Our fleet is one of the youngest, most fuel-efficient in the industry and we serve over 50 destinations in the US, Latin America, Caribbean and Canada – with more to come.
UNIQUE CULTURE
Headquartered in Miramar, Florida, we pride ourselves on being open-minded and creative, and you can see it in our culture. It’s relaxed, friendly and fun. We’re always looking for unique thinkers to challenge us and help us challenge the status quo. We call it "The Spirit Way".
https://www.spirit.com/CareersHome.aspx#
Career video has the word kids printed on the luggage and the imagery is… um… please watch
ceo leaves spirit on a monday starts at jet blue on weds
August 15, 2018 05:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ:JBLU), New York’s Hometown Airline™, today announced the appointment of B. Ben Baldanza and Sarah Robb O'Hagan to its Board of Directors. The independent director appointments are effective immediately, following unanimous approval by the company’s Board of Directors.
“We’re excited to welcome Ben and Sarah and their unique capabilities to the JetBlue Board”
Airlines, and US Airways, spanning marketing, planning, revenue and operations leadership. Baldanza is an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University in Virginia where he teaches airline economics. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Princeton University.
Sarah Robb O’Hagan, a noted leader in marketing and business innovation, is chief executive officer of Flywheel Sports, where she is transforming the indoor cycling company through customer-centric digital services. Previously, Robb O’Hagan held senior leadership roles including president of Equinox Fitness, president of Gatorade, and marketing director at Nike, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Entertainment Group. She is a graduate of the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
"We’re excited to welcome Ben and Sarah and their unique capabilities to the JetBlue Board," said Joel Peterson, Chairman of the Board. “Their diverse experience as innovators across industries will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen the JetBlue business for our crewmembers, customers and owners.”
“Ben and Sarah each bring directly relevant experience and fresh perspectives on every aspect of building sustainable challenger brands,” said JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes. “We believe their insights and experience will make them valued additions to the Board as we evolve JetBlue to deliver our financial commitments while protecting our unique culture and offering a best-in-class customer experience.”
The appointment of Baldanza and Robb O’Hagan brings JetBlue’s Board of Directors to 11 members, 10 of whom are independent.
About JetBlue Airways
JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline®, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 40 million customers a year to 101 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 1,000 daily flights. For more information please visit www.jetblue.com.
Former Spirit Airlines CEO on stolen Alaska Air plane
2:43 PM ET Mon, 13 Aug 2018
Ben Baldanza, former Spirit Airlines president and CEO, discusses the incident of an Alaska Air ground employee stealing a plane.
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/08/13/former-spirit-airlines-ceo-on-stolen-alaska-air-plane.html
this ceo… he is the human trafficer ???
Spirit Airlines
From a large, money-losing, $400M revenue airline in 2005 to a $1.2B IPO in 2011 and a market cap over $4B in 2013, the Spirit Airlines transformation is an amazing story. Spirit pioneered the idea of an “ultra low cost” airline in North America, and copied proven strategies from Southwest and RyanAir to innovate new ideas during the overhaul of its business model. Spirit chose to build an airline focused on customers who pay for tickets themselves, and therefore tend to be highly price elastic in their air travel decisions. In doing so, it turned away from the customer that most airlines covet: the high-fare paying business traveler.
Spirit Airlines crafted a simple, four-part customer proposition: have the lowest price to where you want to fly, be friendly, be reliable, and be clean. Based on these ideas, Spirit lowered its costs through high-utilization and productivity of all assets, and unbundled its pricing structure so that customers could choose to lower their price further by changing their behavior. Even while being criticized by the press, Spirit’s customer ranks grew to record levels and customers saved millions of dollars compared to previous air travel options. Other airlines noticed this success and have copied many of Spirit’s original approaches in their own companies.
Does your business need a re-think of its core purpose and business model? Is there a hidden growth engine and value creator in your asset base that is waiting to be unleashed?
Let Ben Baldanza help you think about your business the way he lead Spirit through its transformation.
Continental Airlines
In the 1990s, Continental was known for having 10 presidents in 10 years, lackluster service, and union-busting tactics that alienated their employees. When Gordon Bethune became the CEO, he and Greg Brenneman authored the “Go Forward” plan that would guide Continental to levels of profitability never before seen and customer service that was considered among the best in the industry.
To drive their revenue strategy, Gordon hired Ben Baldanza to lead the pricing and route scheduling areas of the company. Over three years, Continental’s unit revenue metrics moved from just 78% of industry average to 115% of industry average — the route network grew especially internationally to Europe and Latin America.
Are you looking for ways to increase revenue? Need help pricing your product or service?
Ben Baldanza can help you assess your revenue model.
TACA Airlines
TACA Airlines was privately owned in the mid-1990s and the TACA owners used the airline profits to purchase the failing carriers of Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. TACA hired Ben Baldanza as their COO to merge the five separate airlines into one operationally, and to re-brand the airlines as “Grupo Taca”. Using a simple but powerful idea to merge “Latin Hospitality” with “World Class Standards” of reliability and service, Ben brought in new talent and helped to create a powerful regional brand that established partnerships with large North American Carriers, and eventually merged with Colombia’s Avianca.
Is your company consolidating its operations or brand? Need a strategic approach to execution and communication?
NewLeaf Travel
NewLeaf Travel began as a seller of airline seats to small cities in Canada. NewLeaf was a true virtual airline, as the flying was all done by a third-party operator called Flair. Ben Baldanza was asked to chair this venture. After a year of operations, it was clear that merging the marketing organization of NewLeaf with the operations at Flair would create a more stable and annually profitable venture. The merger was completed and now Flair Air complements the charter services traditionally offered by Flair.
As an independent board member, Ben Baldanza can:
Mentor the CEO
Provide experienced and justified opinions
Elicit collaboration
Consolidate communication strategies
Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct Faculty
B. Ben Baldanza has a 30-year career in the US Airline industry. For eleven years, he was the CEO of Spirit Airlines, helping to transform that airline into the first "ultra low cost" carrier in North America, bringing fares down to as low as $9, while earning record industry profit margins. He has an economics degree from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Affairs, specializing in Transport Economics from Princeton University. His class, Airline Economics, is designed to explain how airlines work in economic terms, and why many concepts that seem odd to consumers actually make sound economic sense.
Selected Publications
Baldanza, B. Ben, "Measuring Airline Profitability," Handbook of Airline Finance, Gail Butler and Martin Keller, editors, McGraw-Hill, 1999, pgs 147-160
Baldanza, B. Ben, with Lipkus, Lance, "Fundamentals of Airport Operations Staffing and Quality Assurance Measurement," Handbook of Airline Operations, Gail Butler and Martin Keller, editors, McGraw-Hill, 2000, pgs 387-402
Baldanza, B. Ben, "The Evolution of Customer Segmentation," Handbook of Airline Strategy, Gail Butler and Martin Keller, editors, McGraw-Hill, 2001, pgs 361-372
https://economics.gmu.edu/people/bbaldanz