Gordon Bethune's Quotes

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.

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.

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

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

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

I learned that you can be successful if you get people to help you become successful.

If you say three things in a row that make sense, people will vote for you.

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

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.

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.

Most businesses fail because they want the right things but measure the wrong things, and they get the wrong results.

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.

The substitute for knowledge is money.

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

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

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

Whether I'm at the hangar or at the airport or on an airplane, I get respect. And that's the best part of my day.

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

You're only as good as your dumbest competitor.

Grounding airplanes to cover your butt would never have let Orville or Wilbur change the world. We would still be spending weeks to cross the Atlantic to do business in London.