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Employees as Hard on Airline as Customers

CEO gets harsh feedback from workers on declining quality

By Jim O'Neill, Newser User

Posted Dec 22, 2007 7:07 PM CST

(Newser) – US Airways has the worst on-time performance of any major US airline; it also has 36,000 employees encouraged to e-mail CEO Douglas Parker about everything from smelly planes to lousy in-flight snacks to a reservation system that doesn't work yet, reports the New York Times. Says Parker: The feedback “keeps management extremely honest.”

Parker fields questions during quarterly, company-wide videoconference meetings at the airline's HQ, where he answers a mix of live comments and e-mails. Some e-mails make it into the weekly newsletter, printed verbatim—vitriol and all. “Not some sanitized version,” Parker tells the Times. Employees “are going to talk about it anyway.”

US Airways customers wait at the ticket desk at San Francisco International Airport, Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. (Associated Press)

Travelers wait on line at LaGuardia Airport in New York, December 21, 2007. (Getty Images)

A US Airways jet taxis towards the gates at Pittsburgh International Airport in Imperial, Pa. Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007. (Associated Press)

US Airways jets taxi at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

US Airways Group Inc. Chairman and CEO W. Douglas Parker addresses the US Chamber of Commerce April 4, 2007 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

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Employees as Hard on Airline as Customers

CEO gets harsh feedback from workers on declining quality

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