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From AirTran Airways Chairman and CEO Joe Leonard’s vantage point, the airline
industry resembles a giant chess game where one bad move could mean checkmate
for his company and for other so-called “low-cost” air carriers. “The big guys try
to kill you,” says Leonard. “Their intent is to run us out of business, and that hasn’t
changed a lot from when we fi rst began operations.” Yet even though the legacy
carriers such as Delta, Northwest, and United have experienced huge losses–in
part because of their efforts to neutralize the competition – Leonard contends
the low-cost carriers remain at a disadvantage.
 “As a smaller airline, you have to be very, very careful. You
have to keep your costs low and you can’t make any big
mistakes,” he noted. “These big airlines can make mistakes
and recover from them. If you’re competing with somebody
ten times your size, you can’t make very many mistakes or
you’ll be out of business.”
Fortunately for AirTran, its employees, and passengers,
Leonard has made very few mistakes. A 39-year veteran of
the commercial air transpor t industry, he became president
and CEO in 1999, and since then he and President and Chief
Operating Officer Bob Fornaro have created a model for
what the airline of the future may look like – lean, mean, and
very focused.
AirTran, which is headquartered in Orlando but has its major
hub at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta,
actually began service in 1993 as Conquest Airlines. It
was renamed AirTran in 1994. In 1997 the airline
merged with ValuJet. The name “AirTran” was
retained because of the lingering reputation
of the ValuJet Flight 356 crash into the
Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996.
Following the ValuJet merger, AirTran began to change its
image from a primarily leisure airline to one that caters
to business travelers as well. It started by assigning seats,
adding Business Class to all flights, and creating a frequent
flyer program (A+ Rewards). When Leonard took over, he
began adding new equipment. In fact, in what was a strategic
masterstroke, AirTran, in the wake of 9/11, increased the
rate of aircraft deliveries while the other carriers scaled
back. The influx of new airliners not only greatly enhanced
the quality of the fleet, according to Leonard, but also “it
improved the image of the airline overnight.”
AirTran Airways is the world’s largest operator of the Boeing
717 and has America’s youngest all-Boeing fleet. The airline
also recently added the Boeing 737-700 aircraft. The addition
of the newer aircraft resulted in fur ther passenger amenities
such as XM Radio on all flights and larger overhead bins.
“We get lots of comments, especially from first-time flyers, that every airplane they get on seems to be brand new,” said Leonard, who also attributes increased customer satisfaction to the “personal touch of flight attendants, agents, and pilots, something we’re very good at.” he adds.
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