Skift Take

Reid has the freedom to be provocative and the experience to be right about what he says.

Fred Reid, the founding CEO of Virgin America, spoke early last month at the Skift Global Forum.

Outside of Virgin America, Reid has a varied past atop major airlines in the United States and abroad. He served as president of both Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa, and also did stints at American Airlines and Pan Am.

Reid has a few radical ideas about how to succeed. “Good airlines tend to have good people,” Reid told the Forum audience, whereas bad airlines often have hostile people. The answer is “really caring” about employees. “People can tell whether you are really caring or not.”

Reid’s discussion is in full, below.

Read More: 4 Top Quotes About Creating a Guest-Centric Airline From Virgin America’s Founding CEO

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Tags: sgf2014, skift global forum, virgin america

Photo credit: Fred Reid, Founding CEO of Virgin America, at the Skift Global Forum in New York City on October 9, 2014. Skift

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