(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . United Airlines CEO uses corporate jet while United customers sleep in airports [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-07-01 Commercial aviation passengers can expect little beyond smaller seats and new fees. And no airline controls the weather. So when thunderstorms hit, the affected areas will suffer local delays. And because of the hub and spoke system of aircraft scheduling, a hub airport hit by bad weather will lead to national delays. However, airlines always have control over their employees and their PR. Bearing that in mind, United Airlines should revue the Marie Antoinette tendencies of its CEO, Scott Kirby. On Wednesday, as United canceled 26% of its flights, Kirby flew on a private jet from NJ’s Teterboro Airport to Denver, CO. It is not as egregious as the CEO of Ford buying a Maserati, but the optics suck. Kirby should have known this — and cynics will say he did, but hoped his 21st-century embrace of droit de seigneur would slip under the radar, metaphorically speaking. However, he was busted. And chagrinned by the exposure, he apologized in a statement issued by the airline: “Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home. I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around-the-clock for several days — often through severe weather — to take care of our customers.” You can tell United’s PR department massaged the message by referring to the weather. It is bad enough that your CEO shows his disdain for the company's customers by refusing to share their hardships. It is worse if those customers think their plight results from second-rate management. Blaming the weather was just the start. Next up was the federal government, always a convenient scapegoat for corporate honchos wanting to excuse their incompetence. Kirby blamed disruptions in Newark last weekend on a shortage of FAA air traffic controllers. In a note to employees, he said, “The FAA frankly failed us” by reducing the rate at which planes could arrive and depart the airport, where United is the dominant airline*. Nice try. If the FAA were the cause, all national airlines would have had similar cancellation rates. Unfortunately for Kirby and United PR, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg provided data to show that United was the poorest performer — and it was not even close. No one is better at sticking the knife in with a smile than Secretary Pete. He will debate the Fox people on their home field and get even MAGA audiences to applaud. So a mealy-mouthed equivocator will have to up his game. Buttigieg was clearly reacting to Kirby’s misdirection by singling out United’s inadequacy while damning them with faint praise. His studied camaraderie — “engaged closely with airlines” — starkly contrasts with Kirby’s finger-pointing. The Independent (UK) newspaper backed up Buttigieg’s statistics by reporting: United's operation has improved since midweek. Cancelled flights fell from 26 percent on Wednesday to 18 percent on Thursday and then 8 percent through Friday evening, according to tracking service FlightAware. However, even on Friday, United was on pace to lead all U.S. carriers in canceled flights for a seventh straight day. United’s unions also offered their thoughts on United’s deficient management by accusing United management of poor planning, a lack of crew schedulers, and operating too many flights. The regular air traveler will agree with that analysis. The airline also said it did not pay for Kirby’s flight — as if that made a difference. They pay Kirby $10 million a year to do whatever it is he does. And I suspect the decision not to reimburse Kirby for his private flight was a PR bandage applied after his excuses hit the fan. We will never know how often Kirby has thumbed his nose at the common air traveling herd because the airline will not say if he has flown on private jets in the past. However, that is tacit confirmation he has. Because if Kirby had not, they would have said so. And most miscreants do not get caught the first time they stray. Let us also note that under Kirby, United received $5 billion in COVID relief funds and still laid off thousands of employees. And if that is not enough salt in the customers’ wounds, consider that Republicans thought people like Kirby were so vital as job creators they gave him a tax cut in 2018. *Note: United may be the dominant carrier at Newark, but that is just one of three major airports serving New York City. American and Delta are the major players at LaGuardia and JFK, while Jet Blue also uses JFK. The three airports are within 10 miles of each other. And presumably operate with the same weather and smoke conditions [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/1/2178792/-United-Airlines-CEO-uses-corporate-jet-while-United-customers-sleep-in-airports Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/