Success Quote by David Neeleman

The line lands with the deliberate plainness of a CEO trying to sound like he’s just stating the weather. Neeleman’s “Certainly” does two jobs at once: it concedes the obvious (yes, fuel costs are crushing) while signaling that any argument about responsibility or blame should stop there. The sentence is built to be uncontroversial, almost anesthetized. No villains, no policy, no pricing strategy - just “high fuel prices” as an external force that “raises our cost,” as if the company is merely receiving an invoice from the universe.

That’s the subtext: don’t confuse our decisions with the market’s volatility. In industries like airlines, fuel is the most convenient scapegoat because it’s both real and politically neutral. You can point to it without picking a fight with labor, regulators, or your own leadership. The passive framing also preps the audience for whatever comes next: fare increases, reduced service, new fees, tighter margins. “Hurt” is the key emotional word, chosen to humanize a corporation and align it with passengers who feel the same pain at the pump.

The context is the ritual of corporate communication during cost shocks: reassure investors that management recognizes the problem, reassure customers that price hikes aren’t greed, and quietly normalize the idea that the consumer will absorb the turbulence. It’s not eloquence; it’s insulation. By making the cause sound natural and the effect inevitable, the line turns a business choice into a shared predicament.