United: Too early to say if bookings hurt by passenger-dragging incident
PHOENIX -- United Airlines says it's too early to tell if bookings have been impacted by the public relations fallout from a passenger being forcibly dragged off one of its flights a week ago.
Corporate customers -- airlines' bread and butter because they travel frequently and pay top dollar to fly last minute -- have expressed concern and asked questions about the incident on United Express Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville, but have been "largely supportive,'' United President Scott Kirby said on the airline's quarterly earnings conference call this morning.
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"They want us to fix this, they want us to do the right thing,'' he said.
Kirby said it's too early to assess whether business travelers or vacationers are booking away from United because Easter week, when the incident occurred, is a traditionally a slow time for ticket sales.
"It's just really hard for us too look at data in the week before Easter and have a good view of whether there was a measurable bookings impact or not,'' Kirby said.
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Social media erupts
Social media erupted with sharp criticism and calls for a boycott against United when video surfaced of bloodied passenger Dr. David Dao being dragged off a flight because he refused to give up his seat for employees the airline said it needed to squeeze onto the plane.
United, which took heat early on for saying a "belligerent'' Dao was in part to blame for the incident, has since repeatedly apologized for the incident and taken full blame. CEO Oscar Munoz started his remarks on the conference calls by addressing the incident.He called it a "humbling learning experience for all of us here at United and for me in particular.''
He said the airline has apologized to Dao and all the passengers on the flight and extended his apologies to all United customers.
“You can and should expect more form us and as CEO I take full responsibility for making this right,'' Munoz said. "We've always sought to repay our customer's trust with the highest quality of service and deepest level of respect and dignity.''
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Policy changes
Munoz said United will announce policy changes next week "to ensure this never happens again.'' He declined to provide details beyond two previously announced steps: Law enforcement will no longer be called to remove passengers from United flights except in case of a security or safety concern, and flight crews needing seats on a flight must be booked at least 60 minutes in advance.
"We continue to review a broader array of policies and systems that factor into situations like this,'' he said. "And, importantly, we are involving our frontline employees and to a degree some of our customers to help us take a more common sense approach to how we do things.''
The airline said it will outline its new approach on April 30.
United continues to get blasted on social media and other outlets. On Monday, the British tabloid Daily Mail posted a photo of Munoz and his wife bike riding near their Florida beach house on Easter weekend. The headline: "Not a care in the world! Freewheeling United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz cycles near his $6 million Florida beach house as mistreated passengers pile on and company stock implodes.''
Dawn Gilbertson is a travel reporter at The Arizona Republic. Her content is occasionally featured here in Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. The Republic is part of the USA TODAY Network.
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