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United CEO apologizes for privet jet ‘mistake’
United Airlines plans to make changes to avoid further holiday travel disruptions as CEO Scott Kirby apologized for taking a private jet.
“We must do a better job of planning against the things that are outside our control so that we can be in a position to recover more quickly,” Kirby said.
“United has never seen an extended limited operating environment like the one we saw this past week at Newark.”
As the airline cancelled thousands of flights and passengers were stuck in airports, Kirby hopped on a private jet.
That was the ‘wrong decision.’
“I sincerely apologize to our customers and team members who have been working around-the-clock for several days.”
He took a private jet flight from Teterboro, NJ, to Denver last week on a day when United canceled 750 flights.
United has canceled thousands of flights in the past week.
United has partly blamed the FAA’s air traffic controller short staffing.
However, flight crew unions called out United’s poor flight planning, with a lack of crew schedulers.
United will make changes to flight operations to avoid any more disruptions
The airline is also seeking more gates at Newark and is speaking with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
That could mean reductions where necessary to give it more breathing space.
As a peace offering, the carrier offered 30,000 frequent flyer miles to customers worst affected.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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