The CEO of
“The system simply can’t handle the volume today, much less the anticipated growth,” Kirby said. “There are a number of airlines who cannot fly their schedules. The customers are paying the price.”
As an example of what can go wrong, Kirby referred to massive cancellations in late December.
“What happened over the holidays wasn’t a one-time event caused by the weather, and it wasn’t just at one airline,” he said.
Kirby made the remarks during a call with analysts and reporters that was billed as a discussion of his company’s fourth-quarter financial results. He struck a contrarian tone. Most airline executives rarely take public shots at their competitors. And they are unfailingly optimistic, often treating massive flight disruptions and other setbacks as freak events caused by Mother Nature or some other factor beyond their control.
Not surprisingly, Kirby said United is taking a different approach. He said it has invested in technology, has more employees per flight than before the pandemic, keeps more spare planes and isn't pushing the schedule too hard. However, those steps have raised United's cost to fly one mile, not counting fuel, about 15% above 2019's level.
United's rate of canceled flights last year was slightly better than most rivals but not the best. Among the six largest
All of those airlines faced another obstacle last week. More than 1,300
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After the stock market closed Tuesday,
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