It isn’t everyday that the CEO of a huge company will lead a large group of his employees to an airshow for a day of general plane geekery, but most CEO’s are not JetBlue’s Dave Barger.
For the third straight year, JetBlue took part in the annual EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, and I got to ride along with them.
About 150 JetBlue employees, family and friends hopped on the JetBlue Airbus A320 named “I <3 Blue York" at the airline's JFK Airport hub straight to the middle of the airshow at KOSH.
Without the security restrictions of a commercial passenger flight, flyers got to take a rare peak inside the cockpit while in the air. Barger personally greeted everyone who boarded and then proceeded to chat with anyone who wanted to on the plane.
A number of JetBlue execs came along for the ride, including COO Rob Maruster and Chief People Officer Joanna Geraghty, but they all seemed dedicated to making the day as fun as possible for the folks who work for them and their families. They were each seen delivering soda or helping collect trash at one point or another.
After a rainy but exciting day at the show (more photos coming soon), we boarded for the return flight to JFK. Not every day that an A320 is screened by hand, pulled to the runway by a US Air Force tug, and then forced to back taxi into position. Oh yeah, and our takeoff slot was sandwiched between two of the day’s airshow performances. After what felt like a steep takeoff climb, the flight back was smooth and fun. Lots of chatting and mingling around the cabin. One very lucky kid got to sit in the cockpit for the landing at JFK.
Many thanks to JetBlue for the ride to the show and for a brief but insight-generating glimpse of the airline’s famed corporate culture.
