Artpen100

It would be to me if he has a reputation for getting them there on time.

Madone59

I was traveling yesterday so I missed this as breaking news but this was all I could think . #BringBackTheTulip

sunil

Part of me is happy to get rid of this looser but the other part is worried about the unknown devil we just let loose

JBEagle1000G

What glorious news to wake up to.

JBEagle1000G

Well, that's all I need to hear to know that Bethune has lost his marbles in his old age.

entropy

I don't expect things to change overnight. However, the fish stinks from the head, $misek's anti-customer attitude rubbed off throughout the organization. The first thing Oscar & Meyer (lol) need to do is bring back the friendly skies. That means at a minimum , not disparaging customers. It means acting like customers are important and valued, even if they aren't paying top dollar today. The attitude that customers don't matter is part of the enormous problem of ontime performance. $misek didn't value customer's time, that's what "diminishing returns" for ontime performance meant.

Jade_BR

I hate to sound cynical, and I'm not a fan of Smisek either, but the truth is that it doesn't really matter much who the CEO is. United is a publicly traded company, and the board and shareholders will continue to pressure whoever is in charge to increase profits. In the airline world that means cutting costs and raising prices to the point the market will bear. IMO the real culprits are the "walmart mentality" consumers who will always go for the cheapest ticket, even if they travel like sardines in a can. Right up there with them are (de)regulators who keep approving mergers that reduce consumer choice and don't look at absurd practices, like fuel surcharge after the cost of fuel drops like a rock, and ancillary fees that mysteriously are not taxable. Think a new CEO will change that?

transportprof

If UA is going to change course, the new leadership will have to demonstrate that new values are in place in the C suite pronto.

Jeff is a brilliant lawyer - probably too smart for his own good. It was obvious that he preferred money to people and this is a fatal flaw in a CEO. The only way to make a huge corporation work to its potential is to inspire people to do their best, and that never happened under Jeff.

As I wrote in the thread on closing DTW and HNL reservation offices, the final chapter of the UA merger analysis would some day conclude that "Too much greed didn't pay." This could also be the epitaph for the Smisek regime at United.

Mr. Munoz would be well advised to send a clear message to the world that there is/will be a new relationship between people and profit at United under his leadership. If he can do that in the next 30 days or so, then we can expect better things to come in the months ahead.

aacharya

The closure of JFK is near and dear to the SFO and NYC folks on FT - who also peruse aspects like Channel 9, dark planes, etc. A board member can't possibly know every nuance if they meet four times a year, and their full-time job is leading a Fortune 500 transportation company.

In addition, the swaps are not that controversial - pretty mundane versus the issue at CAE. It was an odd question - trying to link CAE with JFK.

FlyWorld

That observation should in fact set expectations. United isn't going to change strategy and try to complete with Emirates now. Passengers will, in fact, be treated like cattle and other livestock. The only thing we can reasonably hope for is that the lying will stop, the cheating will stop, and they will start delivering on their promises. Execution. This is the only hope that I have for Munoz. United will likely continue to be my airline of last choice, unless they actually restore the value proposition for seeking status, but if I can count on them to do what they promise to do, and I feel safe flying with them, then I'll fly with them when they are the best choice.

Sadly, we have already heard from Oscar. He wrote a letter to employees that was published online. In that letter, he said he will spend his first 90 days meeting with employees to figure out what he should do next. The fact that he has no idea what to do next, despite being on the board for so long, is telling.

To start with, he needs to fix operations, and get the bloody airline working reliably. One need not be a rocket scientist to figure that out that operational competence is the most important priority.

I think the culture of customer hatred will naturally start to abate if he sets a pro-customer tone from the top. United's employees, for the most part, never wanted to push away their customers, they were ordered to do so from the top under threat of firing.

Then, we may be left with a reliable livestock transporting logistics organization, and sadly, I think that's the best we can hope for in the future. United will always suck and will probably always be a second or third rate airline because I think Jeff's destruction is irreversible at this point, but if they can get operations right, then people will fly them, because at the end of the day, what we need most is to get to our destinations, safely, and on time. Fixing horrible capital decisions that Jeff made will probably take a decade And, Mileage Plus isn't coming back. I just don't see that.

Looking at Oscar's background, it does seem he might be able to at least do that. I hope his first 90 days are focused on how to achieve operational competence.

I think the level of disdain the $mi$ek had for customers is symptomatic of his arrogance, narcissism, and general hatred for other human beings.

The fact that Oscar comes from a more humble operational background gives me hope that he will have more respect for both employees and customers and other stakeholders.

Catbert10

True...a box typically has a guaranteed delivery date.

EMan

Don't be naive!

LPDAL

GlobalFirst is still present on all 744 airframes as well as select 772 and 763 airplanes. The large scale removal of GlobalFirst has not begun yet and has no set date, nor does the retirement of the 747 fleet.

-LPDAL

Jade_BR

Might as well not be. Not that much differentiation there.

grandpiper

I can certainly second this opinion. I spent many years as a customer of the railroad industry. If you think the airlines have little competition then you are in for a treat in the rail business as there was (is) typically zero competition if you wanted to ship by rail.

Nevertheless, CSX was by far the most customer-friendly and operationally efficient railroad I dealt with, and this was not because they were the best of an otherwise sorry lot (at the time) but because they were really good and they would have stood out in any industry. They really did make their trains run on time.