Munoz, Employees to Stay On After United Flight 3411 Incident
Joe Cortez April 19, 2017
Chief executive says nobody will be fired after passenger dragged off aircraft.
In the aftermath of the United Airlines Flight 3411 debacle, chief executive Oscar Munoz told investors there would be no terminations as a direct result of the situation. The Associated Press reports that the leader made the announcement during the carrier’s quarterly earnings call on April 17.
“The incident that took place aboard Flight 3411 has been a humbling experience, and I take full responsibility,” Munoz said in a statement. “This will prove to be a watershed moment for our company, and we are more determined than ever to put our customers at the center of everything we do.”
The executive opened the call by directly addressing UA3411, which lead to 69-year-old Dr. David Dao being forcefully removed from his seat and dragged down the aisle of the aircraft. After issuing yet another apology for the situation, Munoz told those on the call that there was never a consideration of firing United staff as a result of the situation – followed by assuring support from the board of the airline’s parent company, United Continental Holdings, Inc.
“It was a system failure across various areas,” Munoz said on the call, according to the AP. “There was never a consideration for firing an employee.”
The new information comes after Munoz was widely criticized for his handling of the situation. In the days immediately after video of Dao being removed with force went viral, Munoz apologized for those who were “inconvenienced,” followed by issuing an internal message supporting the gate agents and Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD). The issue came to a head when the executive sat down with ABC News to tell United’s side of the story and apologize once more. The three officers involved with removing Dr. Dao were suspended by the Chicago Department of Aviation.
When asked about the practice of overselling flights, Munoz deferred comment until after an internal investigation is complete, due by the end of the month. In the meantime, United has instituted several new policies, including promising to no longer remove paying passengers to accommodate flight crew members.
[Photo: Earl Wilson/The New York Times]
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I am a European mainly and to some extent Asian flyer with only a few visits to the US on my books. This type of incidents are very disturbing to me and the fact that the information I get is very nasty in general, including these last few statements, I am not very convinced I would trust a company like United with my money, neither as an investment nor for transport purposes. This is, and should be, the PR nightmare it is for a company that has some third party beat their paying customers up for not wanting to give up the contract they have signed with a tranport company by buying a ticket. That noone in the organisation can be held responsible, possibly sacked, is that only due to the fact that the actual thug pulling the guy off the plane was not a member of United staff? If so, this is more than an issue with United alone. I doubt anything like this could ever happen in Europe. I am now deterred from making any bookings which include a transfer onto a domestic US flight operated by United. I was recently in New Orleans and had to transfer twice to get back to Europe. I didn't fly any leg with United, but I was still a little bit disconcerted by the constant asking for volunteers to give up their seats.
I think Munoz is more concerned for his own position as 3411 is not going away easily and will likely keep flaring up in the media with every legal step. At some point the board needs to decide whether his piss poor handling of the sitution outweights any possible good he brings to table.
It does not seem hard for United / Munoz to make this statement about not firing United employees as these were not United employees but contracted labor Does anyone know if gate agents working a republic subcontracted flight were actual employees? Something needs to change - flying out of Houston too many times 'employees' get exit rows and I got middle seats if trying to fly on a standby to catch an earlier flight. Personally- all airlines are flying without any excess capacity which makes weather or mechanical issues hard to recover from (re: Delta) I had a flt cancelled by SW for mechanical and their solution was to reroute at time of checkin for 9 hours later. It's an issue on all us airlines it seems
Munoz' decision not to fire the employees who used such terrible judgment, having police come and dragging a passenger who had paid for his flight off a plane...! This decision reflects a culture at United that emanates from the top on down. A different policy; United employees should be authorized to pay whatever it takes to ask someone to give up his.her previously paid for seat. If it took $5000 plus a free ticket to anywhere in the USA to induce a passenger to give up a seat I am pretty certain someone would have taken that choice. And if it was $10,000 ...someone would have taken that choice. Now, with a law suit hanging over and a possible settlement in the many thousands of dollars, this shows the LEADER, Mr MUNOZ, incompetent. He has conveyed the message, if you have to break someone's nose and knock out their teeth, whatever, just insist on your way and proceed to remove a paying guest on your airline. A little bit of money would have caused much less hardship and won a loyal United fan. Instead, we look at the United staff and the people who set policy and think I will avoid that company for sure. Cancelled card.
"....promising to no longer remove paying passengers to accommodate flight crew members." You should never remove a paid (or paid with miles) passengers to accommodate your flight crews/employees. ARE YOU FCKING KIDDING ME!!! My first lesson as retail salesman (many years ago) is "CUSTOMERS ALWAYS RIGHT" in this case, "CUSTOMER ALWAYS COMES FIRST" If you don't know that, what the hell you doing there as CEO??