Helping Haiti: The Need Is Still Great
I have previously written about the outstanding response of the commercial airline industry and organizations like Airline Ambassadors to the enormous slate of human needs that is Haiti after its magnitude-7 earthquake two months ago.
Although most of the media attention has drifted away from Haiti over the past month, as new quakes have occurred in both Chile and Turkey, the situation in Haiti remains dire even by third world standards:
• The death toll will top 300,000; 1.3 million people remain homeless and half of these are without shelter of any kind; sanitation and safe water supplies are critical needs everywhere.
• Haitian children are some of the quake’s most tragic victims: Hundreds of thousands of kids have been killed, injured, orphaned, separated from their families, or left without roofs over their heads or schools to attend.
• The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season commences in June, and is sure to wreak further havoc upon an already wretched situation.
Airline people are the salt of the earth for being among the first to say “Let’s get on the plane; let’s go; let’s help.” Now it’s my turn. Please, if you have a moment, look at the photos and read the first-person account of a medical first responder. Then, send me. Together, we can do a lot. Thank you.
(On Twitter? Please go here and retweet to your network. Thx)
Dear Southwest: Let’s Solve the “Fat” Problem Once and for All. Here’s How.
Dear Southwest Airlines: Your loyal customers LUV you because 1) throughout your history, you have always been an industry innovator; 2) your business model is to keep things lean and simple; and 3) you run your operations based upon a winning strategy of positive relationships.
But you messed up over the weekend with the Kevin Smith blow-up.
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Crain’s Chicago Business: Tilton’s Troubles
Crain’s has this piece about United’s current cash flow problems. In the piece, the author (John Pletz) states what is now common knowledge:
That’s far from the flight path Mr. Tilton, 61, envisioned when the longtime oil industry executive took charge of a struggling United in 2002. He expected to purge excess costs in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, then initiate a badly needed airline industry consolidation with a sale or merger that would send him into retirement with a handsome payday.
“That was Glenn’s plan — to consolidate,” says Mo Garfinkle, CEO of Virginia-based GCW Consulting LLC, who has advised Mr. Tilton and United. “The game plan now is to survive.”
So, this begs the question: How well is United now positioned to survive?
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