Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

Watches are the only jewelry men can wear, unless you're Mr. T.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

It's the old adage: You can make a pizza so cheap, nobody will eat it. You can make an airline so cheap, nobody will fly it.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

A bankruptcy judge can fix your balance sheet, but he cannot fix your company.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

You're only as good as your dumbest competitor.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

No one is going to stick their head out of the trenches for someone they don't respect or trust. You can get shot doing that.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

The substitute for knowledge is money.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

We tax air passengers like cigarettes and alcohol - we impose sin taxes on travellers.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

Somebody who knows what they're doing, who has a good track record, they come across as very articulate, bright and looking for a challenge - that's absolutely my kind of hire.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

There is no economy without airlines. Airfreight runs the world. There is no Honolulu without an airplane. This is a very complex system. If you take it down, you can't build it back up overnight.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

The airline business is the biggest team sport in the world. When you're all consumed with fighting among yourselves, your opponents can run over you every day.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

It all sounds almost silly, but the fact is that the only way to change a corporate culture is to just change it.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

What you measure and reward is what you're going to get.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

Every pilot thinks they're the best pilot in the world. I think I'm the best pilot.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

You don't lie to your own doctor. You don't lie to your own attorney, and you don't lie to your employees.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

I was a mechanic in the Navy. And mechanics in the Navy are like mechanics in airlines. You may have more stripes than I do, but you don't know how to fix the airplane.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

When you actually take the time to go over to somebody's office and personally thank them - whether their office is in a cockpit of an airplane, or in a break room - that's an actual manifestation of interest in them. You need to take the time to show the people around you who work for you that you're interested in them.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

The guy in the airplane goes with you. So he has self-interest to do the good things, too, and I don't know of any pilots that don't have a self-interest in staying alive.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

I just want to be able to get on an airplane and enjoy myself in Disneyland, not sit there worrying about all these assassins.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

It's not about market share. If you have a successful company, you will get your market share. But to get a successful company, what do you have to have? The same metrics of success that your customer does.

Gordon Bethune
Gordon Bethune

It's difficult to have everybody like everything you do. I don't know anybody that's perfect and doesn't have a zit somewhere.