Three weeks after the disaster, Continental began seeing signs of recovery. In its Richmond, Texas specialty-sales center, sales manager Lacey Mizell asked an Ohio travel agent whether business was picking up at all. After a pause, the woman replied, "Yes. At all." Air travel nationwide was creeping up -- and during the week of September 24, Continental's planes were 54% full, four percentage points higher than the industry as a whole. "I needed some good news then," Reitz says. "That was it."

To be certain, it wasn't good enough. Continental estimates that, given its present passenger mix, its planes have to fly 70% full to break even. At 54%, it lost $8 million a day. That's why, in early October, Reitz's direct reports in sales and marketing sat down to weigh the impact of cutting back on meal service, as most of Continental's rivals have done. And on October 2, Continental matched steep cuts by United Airlines on many business fares. The upheaval isn't over.

Here's the thing, though. Upheaval creates dislocations -- and in dislocation, smart people see opportunity. On the evening of Sunday, September 16, Bonnie Reitz still was stunned and saddened by all that had passed in the previous five days. She was weary after a string of 16-hour days at the office and take-out dinners late at night with her husband. But she also was juiced.

Already, she could sense the rumblings of tectonic shifts beneath the tarmac. As the carriers cut back on routes, some big corporate customers were already reconsidering their travel preferences, opening some contracts to bid. As much as that, she believed, the disaster gave Continental an opportunity to show what it could do under extreme adversity. If it could connect with more customers, make them feel safer, and get more flights off the ground sooner, then customers might pay attention.

At Continental's headquarters, the mood has graduated from astonishment and ensuing grief to . . . something else. There's still pain, but also determination. "Get out there! Keep traveling! Do the things you do!" exhorted national agency sales director Kelly Hart in a meeting with his staff on October 1. "Give them free tickets. Get them on airplanes. We want them to see that we're safe, we're reliable, and we're ahead of the curve."

It is a crazy enterprise, flying airplanes. But perhaps not everything is beyond control. Maybe fear can be countered with grit -- plus incentives and a few thousand well-placed emails. And maybe things will get better. "This is our time to lead," Reitz says. "How we respond can set us apart."

Keith H. Hammonds (khammonds@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior editor based in New York. Contact Bonnie Reitz by email (breitz@coair.com).

Sidebar: Turnaround Leadership

Bonnie Reitz, senior VP for sales and distribution at Continental Airlines, helped engineer the company's turnaround based on seven attributes of leadership. She plans to use the same leadership principles as she works to save the company again.

Listening: "Listening is the key to knowing if what we're doing is right. Listen to what your customers have to say. All their ideas are good. You may not agree with them all, you may not use them all, but there's always something to be learned."

Focus: "You can't do everything. Focus on what will make the biggest impact. Communicate your goals relentlessly, so that everyone else knows what their own focus should be."

Action: "Don't think and think about doing what has to be done. If it's worth doing, do it. We have 2,000 flights every day. All those accolades we got yesterday? Poof! They were yesterday. It's today, and we've got to do it again."

Measurement: "What gets measured gets done. I believe in unshakable facts. Get as many facts as you can. Don't spend forever on it, but if you have enough facts and the gut intuition, you're going to get it right most of the time."

No Surprises: "If something's not going well, tell us so that we can deal with it. That's a core strength of Continental. We're willing to stand up and talk about issues so people can say, 'Well, it's not as bad as I thought.' "

Strength: "My people know that no matter what they do, I will be right there next to them. Stand up. Have strength of character in good times and in bad. If you do those things -- and people know that's how you operate -- that's how they start to lead."

Integrity: "You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror every day and say, 'I did the best I could.' "