How Joanna Geraghty Can Win at JetBlue
How Joanna Geraghty Can Win at JetBlue
The new CEO has taken over a broken company. If she manages it right, there's probably only one way to go: Up.
Dear readers,
After years of moving through the ranks at JetBlue, beginning as a lawyer in 2005 and rising to president in 2018, Joanna Geraghty’s first month as CEO of JetBlue is underway. Conditions are tenuous at JetBlue — it lost $310 million in 2023. I’ve written many times about the airline’s identity and business problems, so this may come as a surprise, but I think this is an excellent opportunity for a new CEO.
Think about it. Taking an airline to the top, as Delta management has done, is really hard and takes at least a decade (if not more) of strong management with fresh ideas. But what if the goal is merely to take a broken airline and make it stop hemorrhaging money? I have watched many ruthless turnaround artists do it (sometimes at state-owned airlines) by focusing on basics, including playing to network strengths, honing product attributes, and cutting costs. As Frontier CEO Barry Biffle loves to say: The easiest way to stop losing money is to stop doing things that lose money.
It would take a long time for JetBlue to compete nationwide with Delta, United, and American. I suspect Geraghty wants to move JetBlue in that direction, because who wouldn’t? But if we’re talking strictly about Geraghty’s legacy, I am not sure that’s required. Geraghty will be a hero if she can stop the ridiculous moonshot decision-making of the Robin Hayes era, and start running a competent company.
Geraghty is starting at a fortuitous time, with the slate essentially wiped clean after her predecessor’s disastrous final year.1 Thanks to a federal judge’s decision, she likely won’t spend her time as CEO integrating two airlines with wildly different models.
There are signs Geraghty knows it is time for new thinking, and I’ve been impressed with some of her early moves.2 She led JetBlue’s fourth quarter earnings call last month and signaled she plans to announce changes in May.
She hinted at a few, such as focusing on Boston and New York. Even if she never tackles the scale issue that so vexed Hayes, I believe Geraghty can bring sense back to JetBlue by focusing on messaging, network, and product, while reducing emphasis on non-core businesses. Once she succeeds, perhaps JetBlue can plot nationwide expansion.