Tag Archives for scott kirby.
United Airlines supported affirmative action in California, adopted speech codes; committed to choosing board members on the basis of race; and encouraged the use of pronouns by employees. They’re making big bets on biofuels and electric planes. And they imposed vaccine mandates on employees during the pandemic, before the Biden administration attempted to do so.
I’m genuinely struck by the shift in United Airlines CEO Scoott Kirby since taking the reins at that airline. He was President of US Airways and American Airlines under Doug Parker, and known as a straight spreadsheet guy. At US Airways he wouldn’t even add inflight wifi until he could actually see customers booking away from the airline because they didn’t have it.
United is still careful with cost, and their new premium image often outstrips the reality of the product and experience, but they make investments in customer experience others aren’t making and take risks for payoffs that will be harder to quantify. And it’s working out for the airline.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby laid out the competitive landscape of the airline industry for his employees. United is doing well, Kirby is overly optimistic. He offers important insights but the path is far more fraught for the airline than he lets on.
Delta absolutely melted down, and while employees and customers were dealing with the aftermath their CEO took off for Paris.
United’s CEO appears to have gone on vacation, too. Scott Kirby told employees and customers that he and his family were traveling through the worst of the cancellations this past Saturday.
United dropped change fees as a competitive response to Southwest. Kirby no longer believes are travel is a commodity – as he did throughout his career – having been shown it doesn’ thave to be by Delta. Boeing is headed back into his good graces. And United is working on their new business class.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby warned about proposed Biden administration passenger delay compensation rules, “I do not want a pilot, I do not want a mechanic, thinking about the extra cost of delay when they’re thinking about a decision.”
United Airlines CEO claims the entire U.S. airline industry is overstaffed by 10%. But airlines haven’t been getting more efficient, and they’ve lacked the staff to manage their operations, especially as air traffic control melts down, bad weather rolls in, and carriers like United lose control of their schedule.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, who was smart enough to take a private jet rather than his own airline when he needed to travel from New York to Denver this week, shared an internal letter with his company’s employees explaining what happened as their operation melted down over the past week.
Kirby blames bad weather, FAA air traffic control staffing, and… Canada (yes, really).
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby himself gave up trying to fly United when he needed to go from their Newark hub to their hub at Denver. He flew private out of Teterboro.
The airline says that United “did not pay for his flight.” However Kirby apologizes for abandoning solidarity with his employees and customers trying to get through the morass.
It wasn’t surprising to see Kirby personally go down to meet picketing pilots during the airline’s board meeting in Houston. And it was a terrible look to see those pilots turn their backs on the CEO. And then for the union to brag about it!
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
