CEO spoke for airlines, but Continental first
By Kristen Hays
Associated Press
HOUSTON — Love him or hate him, Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune makes an indelible impression.
Pat Sullivan • Associated Press
He's blunt. He's jovial, with a sarcastic wit. He has no patience for euphemisms. And this week the man credited with resuscitating Continental from near death a decade ago will hang up his wings.
Continental Airlines is losing its flamboyant and sometimes overly outspoken president and chief executive officer. Gordon Bethune, credited with saving Continental, is retiring on New Year's Eve.
"I don't know what I'll be doing, but I won't be dead," Bethune joked recently.
Bethune, 63, had originally planned to retire in August 2006, when he turns 65. But last January he announced that at year-end he would leave the airline in the hands of his longtime second-in-command, Larry Kellner.
Throughout his career, Bethune has spoken for the industry, but Continental comes first. He'll pounce if he perceives a competitor has an unfair advantage whether or not he gets a few bruises.
"It is certainly true that because he is so outspoken, there probably aren't a lot of warm feelings for him in executive offices of many other airlines," said Daniel Kasper, who runs the transportation practice for the consulting firm LECG in Cambridge, Mass. "His job is not to win a popularity contest among his competitors. If he's trying to win popularity contest, it's with customers and maybe with Wall Street. And with the labor force, too."
Kellner, whose video welcoming Continental passengers will replace Bethune's on Continental flights when he assumes the CEO chair on Saturday, said the carrier's strategy or culture won't change. He said Continental will maintain open communication with employees and stick to its mantra to provide "clean, safe, reliable" service.
"By the same token, I'm not Gordon," Kellner said. "He's clearly very colorful. People will see some differences there. But we're obviously both very competitive and we're also pretty direct."
Susan Donofrio, an airline analyst for Fulcrum Global Partners, said Kellner can carry on Bethune's legacy in a similar fashion as Southwest Airlines chairman and founder Herb Kelleher's CEO successors did.
"It's not in a shambles or anything," Donofrio said. "They continue to be one of the leanest operators" among the major carriers.
Continental was the opposite before Bethune arrived.
The carrier went bankrupt in 1983 and again in 1990. The airline was mired in labor strife and a last resort for dissatisfied customers.
Bethune fixed planes for the Navy as a teenager. He worked for three other airlines and The Boeing Co. before joining Continental as a top executive in February 1994. Seven months later he became its CEO.
