"Undercover bosses": why airline ceos turn into flight attendants
What was a fairly successful TV show a few years ago now becomes a real trend [...]
Lufthansa
What was a fairly successful TV show a few years ago now becomes a real trend for top airline managers.
In this article:
The "undercover boss" i.e., the ceo "coming down" from his chair to try his hand at it, at least for a day, in the role of employee performing all those tasks that are daily borne by flight attendants or pilots, in this case.
The latest example came from the very ceo of Lufthansa, Jens Ritter, who tried his hand at the role of cabin crew during two international flights made by the German airline. Before him, however, there had already been the examples di Marjan Rintel, ceo of KLM, and Benjamin Smith, ceo of the Air France-Klm Group.
Lufthansa ceo's experience.
Through a post on Linkedin Lufthansa ceo Jens Ritter unveiled his day as a cabin crew that took him to work as a flight attendant in Business Class on the flight between Frankfurt to Riyadh and Bahrain. On the return, however, Ritter opted for the same activity but in the Economy cabin.
Did you get your flight cancelled, miss your connection, land late?
You could get up to 600€ compensation per person
Ritter claims that his incognito boss activity (for the passengers, not for the crew who knew well who he was dealing with, ed.) helped him open his eyes to the challenges facing the crew aboard the plane every day.
Photos posted on Linkedin, in fact, show the ceo along with the crew preparing and serving drinks and hot meals to customers.
"It was very interesting to respond to the wants and needs of customers while also addressing the challenge of sleep deprivation. In the past, I was a pilot and I thought I knew the challenges involved in flying at night. But to always be present, attentive and fascinating-when your biological clock is just telling you to sleep-is something completely different. The crew was fantastic and welcomed me very well into the team," the ceo recalled in his Linkedin post.
In fact, Ritter emphasized that he will immediately address the most important issues with regard to on-board services. He realized, for example. meals loaded on board were not exactly the same as those available in the relevant menus distributed to passengers.
Air France-Klm's examples
As noted above, Ritter is only the latest example of this new trend. Last May, in fact, KLM's new ceo, Marjan Rintel, was photographed serving meals to passengers aboard a B787-10 flying between Los ANgeles and Amsterdam.
In this case, however, it was a passenger - member Flying Blue Platinum - to discover the undercover boss by flagging him with a Facebook post.
Also the ceo of the Air France-Klm Group, Benjamin Smith, was "discovered" by a passenger while working as a flight attendant during an Air France flight last January.
Other airlines
Also earlier this year Greg Foran, ceo of Air New Zealand, was spotted by some users while working on the airline's baggage handling.
In 2021, however, the CEO of Sun Country, Jude Bricker, attended flight attendant school for a while before working as a flight attendant for the airline on various occasions.
The founder and former ceo of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, had previously tried his hand at both shifts in handling, loading suitcases into the baggage delivery ramp, and as a cabin crew.
Frontier and the real "undercover boss"
A few years ago, finally, Bryan Bedford (at the time president and ceo of Frontier Airlines) participated in the very show Boss incognito-"Undercover Boss" in the U.S.-and in this case even the employees are not aware that their colleague is actually the "boss."
A frame of Frontier's ceo in the Undercover Boss broadcast.
In that episode Bedford played various roles within the company, learning a great deal about the working conditions of its employees. Bedford learned, for example, that crews they had only seven minutes of time to clean each plane, assuming the flight was on time.
In addition, he realized that flight attendants had little time to have interactions and small conversations (small talks) with passengers while were crossing the corridor with the classic trolley of the drinks and that this was not a benefit to the company.
Why the ceo becomes cabin crew
Behind these operations of dressing in the shoes of the employee, there are various motivations prompting top managers to try their hand at board activities.
First of all, there is a corporate meaning: the ceo puts himself on the same level as the employees to Understanding the dynamics of daily work, human relations and work activities among employees, workload and personnel management.
The corporate factor
In the post Covid, it has become increasingly important for large companies to build an ecosystem that combines work and welfare, social inclusion and collective rights.
European air carriers especially are investing heavily in these latter aspects; not least because the impact of the pandemic on airline personnel has been devastating: theic layoffs first, the shortage of personnel and strikes then created a rift between management and employees that an "undercover boss" move may help recompose.
Reputation toward passengers
Added to this is a reputation-related move: the ceo who becomes a flight attendant, for example, returns an image of a company to the airline customer more attentive to customer care And its customer satisfaction.
Again, in recent years, we have witnessed an open wound in relations between airlines and passengers: Last summer's delays, disruptions, and chaos plunged the carrier reputation and their managers, although people continue to travel more and more.
Thus, in this case, the ceo who plays the role of the employee Is a direct message to the customer: "I want to see firsthand what it's like to travel in Economy or Business; what our service levels are and what doesn't work. So I can then improve the experience on board."
The role of leadership
Last but not least, there is a significance also related to the recognition of the ceo's leadership.
"I was surprised by how much I learned in these few hours. Taking the office decisions will be very different from now on; after you really participate in the choices that are made on board," Ritter wrote on Linkedin.
In an industry that bases its success or otherwise on a amount of data and numbers - load factor, Ebitda, revenue, operating margin, aircraft and passenger numbers-and strategic decisions are made from the top based on these numbers, it becomes central for the ceo Recognize the role of strategic decisions that are taken on board to broaden one's view of the organizational machine of air transportation, starting with the single operation of a flight.
