Captain Fantastic and Easyjet

I was dreading the flight. I hate the whole Easyjet “thing”, I like my flights to be comfortable, to have a bit of space, to choose my seat and to be served food and drink. So I really wasn’t looking forward to flying home from London with the orange clad boys and girls.

And if I summarize the flight for you by telling you that:

1/ I was barged out of the way during the ridiculous seat free for all that takes place at the start

2/ The flight was delayed by an hour (late incoming aircraft and then a toilet problem!)

3/ We suffered a “go around” as we approached our landing, which frankly scared me to death

You might surmise that I will never fly Easyjet again. But you’d be wrong!

I now love Easyjet!

Why? Because we had Captain Fantastic. I think I caught his real name as Phil Shore, and he did some things that I have never seen done before in many years of commercial flying. Here’s a summary:

1/ As soon as we had boarded (remember, an hour late) he came into the cabin and spoke to us through the crew microphone. He told us why we had been delayed (a first) and he apologized. He then talked us through the flight plan and had us in stitches telling us that he’d “drive” like we’d stolen the aircraft, and gain back as much time as he could, but that there was no way we were going to get the full hour back.

2/ He then said (and this is pretty much word for word) “Now then, our crew spend so much time training, and the thrust of that training is all about your safety. And they do this brilliant demonstration showing you what to do if anything goes wrong, and most people have their heads in their books or out of the window. Not on my aircraft! I’m going to make a deal with you. You pay full attention to the briefing, and I’ll fly you to Lanzarote. When the briefing is finished I want to hear a loud cheer so I know you’ve been paying attention. If I do, I’ll taxi.” We did pay attention, we did cheer and within seconds we were taxiing!

3/ He kept us informed all through the flight in the same entertaining, jokey style. For the first time in my life I welcomed the interruption to the movie – Captain Fantastic was pure entertainment!

4/ Now we get to the “Go around.” I don’t know if you have ever experienced one of these, but we were a few seconds from touch down (which is over the sea here), flaps and wheels down, and full power was suddenly applied. You have that horrible few seconds where the aircraft shakes and shivers under power, but continues to sink, before finally launching skywards again. It’s a pretty common occurrence, but it’s no fun! Phil was on the mic within seconds explaining that there was nothing wrong with the aircraft, and that air traffic control had simply not given us enough room to turn and lose height. He told us that he would be “having a sharp word with the boys in ATC when we landed.” All went well on the second attempt, and he once again apologized for the “moonshot.”

5/ As the doors were opened for us to leave, Captain Fantastic himself was there to say goodbye and to thank us for flying Easyjet.

So what’s the point of this story? I think it’s that by presenting a human face to us, Phil made a bad experience good. He kept us informed and entertained and he showed that he really cared about us, which is something rare in his industry. We can apply these lessons at so many levels to business, to blogging, to life in general. What do you think?

Maybe also check out:

1/ It’s how you say it, not what you say

2/ Communicate your way to success as a blogger

3/ Your blog as a shop