This is very much the consequence of trying to be a lean machine — for the benefit of management, shareholder and even employee returns — while being able to too easily avoid having to fully internalize the costs to the customers adversely impacted by a too lean system that too easily can afford to turn into a mean system for customers. When UA can get away with customers paying the price for UA’s periodical breakdowns in this environment, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Scott Kirby leads by example or follows by example with his escape act. Accountability is severely lacking because too much market concentration allows just that: too little meaningful accountability for operational meltdowns.