Corsair,
Your general point about a small business mentality may very well be correct but I think you are wrong in saying that “no CEO belongs at check in”, quite the reverse; customers are, or should be, the most important thing in a CEO’s life - yes before employees AND before stockholders for without satisfied customers there is no employment or profit.
All senior management should have exposure to real life customers and see how they interact with the company. It’s not a sign of micro management or a small shop keeper’s mentality to see how things are going at check in or to talk to the people that most matter to the business. For a good analysis of this see “Up the Organisation” by Robert Townsend who was using his experiences of rescuing Avis as a model.
FYI I have no brief for the company and avoid flying with them and another well known low cost operator due to their employment practices and the way they treat their customers.