Crash and Burn, Glenn Orsmond
Crash and Burn, Glenn Orsmond
List: $13.00 | Sale: $9.10
Club: $6.50

Crash and Burn
A CEO’s crazy adventures in the SA airline industry

Author: Glenn Orsmond

Narrator: Adam Neill

Unabridged: 5 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/10/2024


Synopsis

In the cut-throat world of low-cost airlines, competition is the name of the game. Not only up in the air but also on the ground. Crash and Burn is an insider’s tale of the South African airline industry over the past thirty years and the dramatic collapse of Comair in 2022, as told by Glenn Orsmond, twice CEO of Comair and the founder CEO of 1time. Orsmond takes the reader on a wild ride through the ultra-competitive sector of low-cost airlines that boomed after South African Airways’ stranglehold on the skies was loosened in the 1990s. Comair – which operated both Kulula and British Airways – and 1time were at the forefront of this new wave of airlines that saw domestic flying and tourism take off. But after some incredible highs and lows, Comair crashed under Orsmond’s watch despite the company’s 75-year unblemished profit history. The pandemic’s impact, the grounding of aeroplanes after a questionable regulator investigation and poor management decisions all contributed to its downfall. Expect tales of industry legends and innovation, but also of competitors trying to gut each other, battles between pilots and accountants, unions and bosses at loggerheads, and warfare between shareholders and directors in boardrooms. You’ll never think of flying in South Africa in the same way again.

Reviews

Goodreads review by P.E. on May 15, 2013

I've given Crash and Burn some honest thought, and I think I love it. The operative word being "think" because there's a lot to hate too, and I can see why some people didn't enjoy this book. But in this review, mine is the only opinion that matters and I'll do my best to explain why this book messe......more

Goodreads review by Runa on November 28, 2013

Okay, let's start this review off by mentioning that a drunk person cannot consent to sex. Because the main character of this book has a lot of sex with girls who are drunk, high, or both, and let's just clarify right off the bat that that's 110% not okay. Sex and drugs basically set the tone of thi......more

Goodreads review by Kelly on February 12, 2013

2.5. Steven Crashinsky -- Crash -- was the person who talked David Burnett -- Burn -- down when he held his school captive. But what was it Crash said to get Burn to stop? Unfolding over 540 pages is Crash's growing up with and without Burn in his life. The two of them were never friends, but they sp......more

Goodreads review by Becky on March 17, 2014

I have mixed feelings about this book, and here they are, kind of scatter-brained. Crash, the main character, is a pretty repulsive character. He's a poor little rich boy that I never quite managed to be sorry for. Set up against Burn, the manic depressive boy genius whose natural destructive tendenc......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on September 04, 2013

I just finished this book and I'm still in tears and I should be in bed but I have to write this review. I hated this cocky little punk Crash when I started the book. He was every douche I knew in high school, charming his way out of trouble and into girls' pants. But that's just part of the story. Th......more